IONIQ 6 will share a lot of core components with the IONIQ 5 crossover but will deliver its unique flavor that will certainly be worthy of another madness when released in 2022.
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Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car, the IONIQ 5 made quite an entrance when it was launched on February 23, 2021. The Koran maker’s first dedicated EV platform E-GMP based IONIQ set the new Korean sales record by posting more than 24,000 units of preorder on its first day of release, as well as selling out of the initial allotment of 3,000 units for Europe and ending up taking in more than 10,000 units of order in just in one day. So, the IONIQ brand is now a big thing. It may take up to 8-12 months before people can take delivery, but that’s not cooling down the IONIQ 5 madness.
Naturally, consumers’ interest in the next Hyundai electric car is very high! The next E-GMP model expected from the IONIQ brand is called IONIQ 6 and it promised to be even more innovative and technology-packed.
The Hyundai Prophecy Concept-Based Ioniq 6 Electric Sedan Interior
Recently, released through Korean news media was Hyundai motor group’s battery-pack procurement schedule for the upcoming E-GMP-based electric vehicles, which will form the core of the Hyundai cars in the future under the brands IONIQ, Kia, and Genesis.
According to the released information, this procurement involves battery packs for 2.5 million vehicles accounting for 150 giga-watt-hour in total, which will be broken down into 4 phases starting in 2021. For the first phase, Hyundai is to receive 10-trillion Korean Won or 9-billion US dollars worth of battery-packs from a Korean battery-maker SK Innovation in 2021 for the production of the first wave of E-GMP vehicles such as IONIQ 5, Kia EV6, and Genesis GV60. For the 2nd phase, 6-billion Korean Won or 5.3-billion US dollars’ worth of battery-packs from another Korean battery maker LG, as well as from CATL, an upstart Chinese battery maker, is to be delivered to Hyundai in 2022. This second phase procurement allotment is to be used for none other than IONIQ 6, and Kia’s version of the IONIQ 6 sedan.
“we don’t do show cars for show business at Hyundai design. When we do a show car, it anticipates the future, so this is the prophecy of the future, something you will see on the streets soon.” - Luc Donckerwolke, Chief Creative Officer, Hyundai Motor Group
At this moment, your questions might be two folds. The first question might be, what is this Kia’s version of IONIQ 6? For this, we will reserve it for our future issue of Auto Vision. So stay tuned. The next question that you might be wondering is why make sedans at all in this age of electric vehicles.
Although sedans are not the most popular vehicle type right now in the midst of SUV and crossover madness, manufacturers are still not totally giving up on the old faithful. Manufacturers, however, try to find a way to make sedans more interesting and entice younger buyers by creating sedans that resemble a coupe than your father’s 3-box sedan. 4-door coupes such as Audi A7 and Mercedes Benz CLS paved the way for the new trend, and Hyundai as good as they are at catching on to the good things when they see it, have started to create their own versions. This was a case with the company’s sexy Kia Stinger 5-door hatchback a few years ago and now applying the similar design theme to just about every one of their notchback products from the Hyundai Elantra compact sedan to its latest creation, the Kia K8 large sedan. And now that we are at the crossroads where I-C-E cars converge with the electric vehicles, will Hyundai continue with this design trend?
Absolutely! As it is clearly seen in the company’s Hyundai Prophecy concept, which will form the basis for the upcoming IONIQ 6 sedan that won a "Best of the Best" Red Dot Award in the mobility and transportation category in 2020.
And we know from the experience that the swoopy Prophecy concept will most likely resemble the actual production IONIQ 6 as it was the case for the IONIQ 5, which was a dead copy of the Hyundai 45 concept.
As Luc Donckerwolke, the chief creative officer at Hyundai puts it, when asked about the naming of the Prophecy concept, “we don’t do show cars for show business at Hyundai design. When we do a show car, it anticipates the future, so this is the prophecy of the future, something you will see on the streets soon.”
The Prophecy concept was designed to show the Korean company’s vision of what a sedan should be in the coming electric automobile age. But, interestingly, according to Sangyup Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of Hyundai Global Design Center, the Prophecy is actually inspired by the curvy sedans of the 1930s, while the Hyundai 45, which was the precursor to the IONIQ 5 SUV, is inspired by the 1970s Hyundai Pony, the first indigenous car of Korea.
Adding to the design of the Prophecy, Lee stated that its skateboard platform will have a short overhang with the cowl pushed forward to maximize the cabin space and the Prophecy will not be a traditional sedan but a futuristic one.
Hyundai Prophecy Concept
The Prophecy’s proportions are inspired by aerodynamic design, and Hyundai is calling this the Ultimate Automotive Form, built on a new EV architecture E-GMP that was debuted on the IONIQ 5 crossover with its extended wheelbase and short overhangs, featuring a boat-tail line. Also, all design components have their functions. Like its sloping fastback roof, the rakish shape had to be complemented by a spoiler in order to get the right aerodynamical values for such a sleek vehicle with a low back-end. Also, the propeller-shaped wheels are also functional as they extract the hot air from the brakes.
Inside, as Prophecy is designed around the concept of autonomous driving technology, you will not find a steering wheel, but two joysticks to control the direction.
Hyundai says 90% of the functions of the car can be controlled through the buttons on the joysticks, which replaces the traditional steering wheel, so there is no need for the driver to take hands off the joysticks. This ergonomic setup is referred to by Hyundai as the Intuitive Human Interface which gives two advantages – improving passenger safety and visual freedom.
The joysticks will most likely not make it to the final production of IONIQ 6, however, what will make it to the production is autonomous driving. The IONIQ 6 will likely be the first E-GMP-based car to receive level-3 autonomy, meaning that it will virtually be a hands-free self-driving car. FYI, the IONIQ 5 will be released with the level 2 self-driving, which is equivalent to Tesla’s current AutoPilot. However, Hyundai has just completed the successful testing of level-4 self-driving vehicles in conjunction with its US Joint-Venture “Motional”, inching closer to the complete self-driving. The level-4 autonomy will be automatically updated to your IONIQ vehicle via Hyundai’s O-T-A or Over the Air update system, once the technology becomes ready in the year 2023 or 2024.
With all the freedom that the driver and the passenger will receive via the open space design with flat floor enabled by the skateboard-like structure of the dedicated electric platform and the self-driving technology, the driver and passengers can enjoy the vehicle's “Relax mode” where the dashboard swivels down and a pillar-to-pillar wide display comes alive to be enjoyed by the passengers.
Hyundai has also introduced the new Smart Posture Care System (SPCS) through the Prophecy concept, which recommends the ideal seating position for the driver based on his weight and height characteristics. The system can adjust the steering, head-up display, seat, and mirrors to best suit the operator. And when the driver wants to take a break, he can switch to the aforementioned ‘Relax’ mode. This system would be very useful when more governments allow higher levels of autonomous driving.
It’s probably too early to expect these technologies to be available with the introduction of IONIQ 6, however, the notion that the entire windshield and the windows turning into an entertainment screen will carry forward as the windows of IONIQ 6 will never need to be opened. The new EV sedan from IONIQ will feature a unique air filtration system that comes built with a fine dust sensor. The filtration system takes fresh air from outside when the particle levels inside the car get too high. The air is filtered before being circulated around the cabin. Not just when the car is driving, the vehicle’s air filtration system works also when no one is inside and it is charging.
Ioniq 6 (Prophecy) Digital Cockpit
Furthermore, IONIQ 6 will be a car that you would never have to step out of to do things that you would normally have to do at home. The IONIQ 6 and other E-GMP models will offer a bi-directional power conversion function. The dedicated EV platform’s Integrated Charging Control Unit or I-C-C-U is an upgrade from the old eco-car platform’s On-Board Charger or OBC. Unlike OBC, which typically allows only a single directional flow of electricity from an external power source, I-C-C-U enables vehicle-to-load or V2L function. Electric machinery of 110V or 220V can be operated using the energy stored inside the EV’s battery pack. One can even operate a household air conditioner and a large-screen TV.
But if you do have to go home, you can use IONIQ 6’s Digital Key, a feature that allows customers to use their smartphones as keys, and the "car to home" feature that gives drivers the ability to link up their smart home appliances to their vehicle, so they can do things such as turn on their home air conditioner before they return home, from the vehicle.
Finally, the question about the performance of IONIQ 6. Going back to the issue of battery procurement, we can understand that phase 2 procurement is actually a continuation of phase 1. This means, that the powerplant of the vehicles that the phase 2 battery packs will be similar to that of phase 1. The phase 1 battery packs went into powering 302 combined horsepower and 446-pound-feet of torque front and rear motors of vehicles such as IONIQ 5. Rated at either 58 kWh or 77.4 kWh, the battery pack powers two electric motor layouts, either with a rear motor only or with both front and rear motors.
Therefore, most likely, the Ioniq 6 could be had with either rear- or all-wheel drive. In the dual-motor all-wheel format, the zero-to-60-mph time should be similar to that of IONIQ 5 with 5.2 seconds with the dual-motor, while the single-motor rear-wheel-drive model with 215 horsepower and 258 pound-feet should be able to do the same run in 7.4 seconds.
When equipped with a two-wheel drive and a 77.4-kWh battery, IONIQ 6’s maximum driving range on a single charge should be around 290 to 300 miles or 470 to 480 km on WLTP standard.
IONIQ 6’s E-GMP platform can support both 400V and 800V charging infrastructures. The platform offers 800V charging capability as standard, along with 400V charging, without the need for additional components or adapters.
With a 350-kW charger, IONIQ 6 should be able to charge from 10 percent to 80 percent in just 18 minutes. The Porsche Tay-can needs 22.5 minutes to do the same.
Also, it should only require five minutes of charging to get 62 miles or 100 km of range.
Now for the exciting part, the phase 1 production also includes the high output version that’s reported to be as fast as Porsche Taycan 4S at 0-60 mph of 3.0-seconds with total output expecting to be north of 600-hp. For more information on Hyundai’s high-performance electric vehicle program, please check out our video on the IONIQ 5 N and the Veloster N E-TCR by clicking the link above.
Ioniq 6 (Prophecy) Rear Design
This notion of high-performance EV will most likely be extended to an N version of the IONIQ 6 as illustrated here. What was once known to be an April Fool’s joke a couple of years ago, may not be a joke after all. Hyundai has a knack for not wasting any opportunity to surprise the people with what they call a design study, but turning around and churn out production vehicles a few years later. As was the case was for Kia Stinger, which was based on the Kia GT concept, as well as the upcoming Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup truck, which was also just a design study.
Whether it be the normal IONIQ 6 with the sleek coupe-like body encasing the state of the art technology in an electric vehicle or the high-performance N version with over 600-hp and 0-60 time of 3-seconds, many will question why one would have to pay almost twice the money for something like Porsche Taycan when IONIQ 6 is as high-tech, fast and additionally, likely be more reliable. The estimated launch date of IONIQ 6 is the Summer of 2022 with an estimated starting price of $55,000.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO: https://youtu.be/QwjW-sxhvJs