• Feels pleasingly like a conventional car
• Few foibles with the technology
• Roomy up front, rear space average

How is the quality and layout?

The Ioniq’s interior is the polar opposite of its main rival, the Toyota Prius, and given the car’s keen pricing, the quality is more likely to impress than disappoint. Rather than being a futuristic screen-fest, it’s more conventional and as a result easier to get along with. In fact, if you don’t look too closely at the hybrid-specific gauges and buttons, the Ioniq’s interior could easily belong to any regular petrol or diesel car in the Hyundai range.

The centre console is dominated by a large touchscreen, used to operate the majority of the car’s functions, sitting above easy-to-operate climate controls and a conventional drive selector, rather than the stubby little control you’ll find in Prius.

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Infotainment and tech

A 10.25-inch touchscreen is standard on all but base spec models (which get an 8.0-inch version). This large screen gets Bluelink connectivity (Hyundai’s connected car service) plus the ECO DAS system we describe in the Performance section. Live services including traffic and fuel information are embedded into the larger screen’s maps, plus you can link two phones at the same time via Bluetooth. All cars get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, too.

Other notable features include an all-digital instrument cluster (allowing it to change colour and the display of the dials when switching to Sport mode) and the unusual choice of a brownish-grey colour for the majority of the plastics. The instrumentation is easy to read, and all secondary controls logically laid out. We particularly like the TomTom-powered sat-nav, which is simple to use and fast-acting.

Comfort

• Rides comfortably, isolates outside noise
• Seats are supportive, front and rear
• This is a soothing car to drive

Hyundai’s reasoning for fitting the dual-clutch automatic transmission to the Ioniq Hybrid is that it brings the engine speed better into line with the speed you are actually travelling.

This should make it a much more refined experience than a hybrid car with a CVT (which is what’s used in the Toyota Prius), because those gearboxes rely on revving the engine higher to accelerate. This is a definite improvement, but the Ioniq Hybrid is still quite a noisy thing under power.

Ride comfort is reasonably good throughout the Ioniq range, but if you opt for the bigger 17-inch wheels (standard on the highest-spec model) you may find it occasionally becomes abrupt over ridges and potholes. Regardless, this is unlikely to be a car you come to dread taking on a long journey, while Hyundai offers the option to swap the 17-inch wheels for the 15-inch alternatives at no extra cost.

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