How Hyundai made Ioniq 6 its most aerodynamic vehicle ever

SEOUL — Just how slippery is Hyundai’s new Ioniq 6 electric powered car?

When the 4-doorway fastback sedan comes in the U.S. early subsequent 12 months, it will have the exact same platform and lengthy-assortment powertrain as the Ioniq 5 compact crossover. But the Ioniq 6 will get a large strengthen in battery assortment — thanks primarily to its super modern, air-shedding silhouette.

In truth, the Ioniq 6 is the most aerodynamic automobile at any time made by Hyundai Motor Co. It achieves a .21 drag coefficient, as opposed with .29 for the Ioniq 5, which landed this calendar year.

Hyundai is loath to label the Ioniq 6 a mere sedan. To its designers, the jelly bean-formed EV is a “streamliner,” a title that harks back to the rounded types pioneered in the 1930s.

The rear-wheel-push edition with the 77.4-kilowatt-hour battery achieves a range of 381 miles beneath the Globally Harmonized Light Automobiles Check Course of action cycle. Which is a jump from the 315-mile selection of the Ioniq 5.

The Ioniq 6’s pinched-off boat-tail aerodynamics are absolutely key to its eking out extra miles.

“The most improvement resulted from a minimize in air resistance,” Hyundai world design and style main Simon Loasby said of the Ioniq 6 at a late September travel function here.

“It will take our shopper farther on a single charge.”

Loasby challenged his group to produce a drag coefficient down below .20 by printing a T-shirt emblazoned with “.1x.” They did not really get there. But the Ioniq 6’s coefficient continue to lands in the realm of these types of weighty hitters as the Porsche Taycan, Tesla Product 3 and Lucid Air.

“All people claimed, ‘You’re mad. You’ll in no way hit that focus on,’ ” Loasby reported. “I know, but I required to see how much we can get. And that was our sort of mentality for the venture.”

The Ioniq 6 isn’t going to have an EPA-rated assortment but. But Hyundai expects it to be all over 330 miles, about 9 % greater than the Ioniq 5’s 303 miles. The Ioniq 6’s U.S.-rated array must be finalized right before the car’s North American debut at the Los Angeles Vehicle Display in November.

The motor vehicle has currently gone on sale in South Korea, the place Hyundai suggests it has much more than 40,000 preorders, and lands in Europe this calendar year. It enters manufacturing for North The usa in January at Hyundai’s Asan plant in South Korea, with deliveries landing stateside two or 3 months later. At Asan, the Ioniq 6 is made on the similar line as the Hyundai Sonata sedan.