2022 Ioniq 5 Specs Leaked on Hyundai Austria Website
By: Shudeep Chandrasekhar
Tags: Ev, Hyundai, 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5, Electric Vehicles, Electric Car

The iconic Ioniq 5's Specs Leaked: Misstep or Calculated Act?

Image Copyright: Hyundai

Hyundai’s Austrian website seems to have leaked more than a few specs on the highly anticipated 2022 Ioniq 5, giving rise to the usual round of speculations about the latest EV effort from the mass-market South Korean auto giant. To be clear, this model is not the same as the Hyundai Ioniq 2021, which has a much lower range.

Hyundai Ioniq 2021 — Source: Car and Driver

The leaked specs are for the 2022 Ioniq 5, which is expected to debut in early-2021. Was this a calculated marketing gimmick or a slip of the hand by some poor unknown web designer who got a rap on the knuckles? Hard to tell, but the detailed page might well be on the verge of a formal release by the looks of it.

The first image above shows the Concept 45, and the word on the street is that the Ioniq 5 will be designed along these lines. Although no corroboration from the company was forthcoming, the fact that the specs were leaked on an official company website makes it quasi-official.

The information has since been pulled, but a little effort to retrieve the cached web page of the original one spotted by the Korean Car Blog reveals all we need to know about the authenticity of the information (for now, at least.)

Source: Screenshot by Author

Source: Screenshot by Author

Source: Screenshot by Author

The page invites reservations for the Ioniq 5 and was cached on December 21, per the screengrabs shown above. At this point, it is unclear whether any reservations were, in fact, made, but here’s a rough translation (read Google Translate) of the invitation on the page:

Reserve your IONIQ 5 as First Edition now before the official launch in June 2021 and become part of the e-mobility revolution: Our brand new E-CUV (Crossover Utility Vehicle) impresses with a range of around 450 km (according to WLTP ), 800 volt charging technology including all-wheel drive. Now you have to be quick because there are only a few quantities available. Please read our FAQs to answer all open questions. Have fun exploring!

Per the linked FAQs on that page, the €1,000 (approx. US$1,200) reservation price is refundable until a sales contract has been signed.

The key information here is that the first edition will likely be limited to 150 units. The much-hyped EV will likely have a range of 280 miles (Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure cycle, or WLTP) and the battery will charge from 20% to 80% in about 15 minutes, which is a significant point to note because it approaches the time taken to gas up an ICE vehicle. More on that in a bit.

An advisor on Hyundai Austria’s live web chat service reportedly mentioned a bigger, 73 kWh battery that could push the range up to 342 miles from the standard 58 kWh battery’s 280 miles, but it’s hearsay at this point.

As you can see, 15 minutes is significantly faster than some of the top-selling EV models in recent years, some of which don’t even support fast charging at 150kW and above. But that only shows how charging technology is evolving over time. The fastest option right now is the one Lucid Motors boasted a few months ago — a 900-volt charger claiming 20 miles a minute of charge. For reference, Tesla’s V3 Supercharger does 15 miles per minute of charge.

Against those benchmarks, 15 minutes to go from 20% to 80% is about 11.2 miles per minute of charge. Not necessarily pathbreaking with an 800-volt charger, but not too shabby, either.

Fast-charging is an essential component of EVs and just as crucial as the range, safety features, connectivity, public charging network reach, etc. It is one of the factors that will help bring EVs into mainstream auto and its importance can’t be understated.

If a company can achieve a sub-10-minute charge time for even 60% of battery power, that’s going to be a major milestone. At this stage, however, a 10-minute charge threshold is largely academic, although it’s been achieved for a full charge at the Electrochemical Engine Center at Penn State. The problem is, it typically takes years to go from lab-testing a proof-of-concept to actually getting a mass-market model on the road.

On a side note, the Tesla Model 3 recently made it into the Guinness Book of Records for an 855-mile run sponsored by Zero Carbon World. The total combined charge time was 1 hour 31 minutes and 32 seconds for the entire journey, breaking the 2015 record of 3 hours 44 minutes and 33 seconds.

As for the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the one thing we don’t know at this point is what it will actually look like. Although Hyundai is known for groundbreaking designs and even won Auto&Design magazine’s 2020 Car Design Awards for its “Prophecy” design in the Concept category as well as the 2020 reddot award, there’s no guarantee that the design will be similar to the 45 concept car or any of its past renderings.

Just to whet your appetite for EVs of the future, I’ll leave you with some drool-worthy images — and a video link — of the Prophecy. Which we’re never likely to see on the road, by the way.

Source: Hyundai Motor Company

https://www.hyundai.com/content/hyundai/ww/data/news/data/2020/0000016411/attach/Prophecy_Video.mp4