2025 Ioniq 5 XRT First Drive Assessment

At a time when EV gross sales have been stagnating, Hyundai one way or the other retains constructing demand. An expanded lineup, with merchandise just like the smooth Ioniq 7 and the upcoming three-row Ioniq 9 definitely helps.

However, the unique Hyundai Ioniq 5 was the first purpose the model’s U.S. EV gross sales shot up by 90% in 2024. And the automaker goals to maintain that momentum constructing because it rolls out an up to date model of the electrical crossover.

You may not discover a lot completely different concerning the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5, definitely not at first look. The outside adjustments are minimal, save for the welcome addition of a rear windshield wiper. However there’s much more to love, beginning with a much bigger battery pack delivering, on some trims, practically 20 extra miles of vary.

However what you is perhaps particularly enthusiastic about is the introduction of the brand new off-road-focused Ioniq 5 XRT package deal. We took it out into the Palm Springs desert to see how effectively the brand new mannequin carried out.

Briefly: The 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 builds upon an already admirable product. This mid-cycle replace makes minimal design adjustments however delivers improved vary and now can cost immediately from Tesla Superchargers. And the large information: a brand new off-road-focused XRT package deal that gives extra floor clearance and rugged appears.

2025 Ioniq 5 Assessment

Welcome to sunny Palm Springs? Effectively, not fairly on this gloomy February afternoon, as my regional jet lastly lands after being bounced all around the sky on a connecting flight from Salt Lake Metropolis. At the least it’s not the heavy snow and frigid climate I left behind in Detroit. And, in a approach, It’s an excellent alternative to see what the newly up to date 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT I’ll be enjoying with over the subsequent couple of days is fabricated from.

The Ioniq 5 generated loads of buzz when it debuted 4 years in the past. It wasn’t the Korean carmaker’s first all-electric mannequin. It already had a model of the Kona in showrooms. However Ioniq launched the brand new E-GMP platform that would take one of the best benefit of its skateboard-like platform by pushing its wheels to the corners and delivering class-above inside house.

It additionally meant a decrease middle of gravity for promised enhancements in street dynamics. It delivered, with the Ioniq 5 successful an assortment of awards, together with North American Utility Automobile of the Yr.

Since then, Hyundai has embraced the precept of steady enchancment, with quite a lot of modest upgrades. It additionally added extra variants, beginning with the wild Ioniq 5 N efficiency mannequin which may launch from 0 to 60 in little greater than 3 seconds.

With the launch of the 2025 “mid-cycle refresh,” Hyundai takes issues a step additional, with yet one more attention-grabbing trim package deal, extra vary, and a much-needed rear windshield wiper.

What’s New for 2025

That is, after all, a battery-electric automobile, so let’s begin on the market. The unique Ioniq 5 provided two battery pack choices. So does the 2025 mannequin. The usual pack, nevertheless, grows from 58 to 63 kWh, whereas the long-range pack goes from 77.4 to 84 kWh. That enhances vary by as a lot as 15 miles per cost.

Talking of charging, the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 turns into the primary automobile obtainable within the U.S. emigrate from the previous CCS charging port to the Tesla-style CCS port. By having access to that competitor’s Supercharger community, Hyundai claims, house owners now have twice as many public chargers they will plug into. They usually additionally get a free adapter to make use of older chargers.

Visible adjustments are minimal for 2025, at the least on most trims. There’s that much-needed rear windshield wiper which, Hyundai stated, was left off initially due to its impression on aerodynamics. It discovered a approach to reduce the impression with the 2025 mannequin.

For a lot of potential consumers, nevertheless, the large information is the arrival of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT.

2025 Ioniq 5 XRT

It’s change into all however the norm for automakers to introduce off-road-ish variants of right this moment’s crossovers, with fashions just like the Subaru Forester Wilderness we noticed debut on the Chicago Auto Present earlier this month. The idea is uncommon within the EV house, nevertheless.

Even the brand new Jeep Wagoneer S is a determined soft-roader with largely ineffective sand and dust driving modes. The closest we’ve seen to this point is the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally.

Now comes Hyundai with the Ioniq 5 XRT. No, you gained’t need to strive it out on the Rubicon Path. And there are just a few tracks in Moab {that a} sane driver would problem with the EV. However, for a lot of different tackling, considerably subdued off-road trails, the XRT ought to just do wonderful.

This package deal will get essentially the most notable visible adjustments, with revised bumpers and corners — which undertake a brand new tackle the Ioniq “pixelated” shade scheme that is perhaps thought of digital camouflage. Surprisingly, there are not any new skid plates. However, Hyundai officers insist they aren’t wanted, the unique safety across the battery pack and motor being greater than sufficient.

Floor clearance, in the meantime, climbs from 6 to 7 inches. With all of the modifications, the XRT now boasts an method angle of 19.8 levels, and the departure angle elevated to 30.0 levels. By comparability, the numbers are 17.5 and 25.4 levels, respectively, on the 2025 Ioniq 5 non-XRT fashions.

In fact, XRT additionally will get distinctive 18-inch wheels and 235/60 R18 all-terrain tires. And it provides vivid purple restoration hooks on the entrance finish.

Powertrain

There are not any adjustments when it comes to energy and efficiency numbers for the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5. Excluding the 5 N, you’ll get 164 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque with rear-wheel-drive packages and 320 horsepower and 446 pound-feet with the all-wheel-drive system. The XRT is barely provided in AWD.

With the bigger battery packs, you do get as a lot as 15 miles extra vary, peaking at 318 miles per cost for the prolonged pack and RWD.

The swap to the Tesla-style charger port is the large information, and Hyundai will get there forward of the remainder of the business with Ioniq 5. However, the Ioniq 5 N gained’t comply with till subsequent yr.

From the beginning, Hyundai adopted an 800V electrical structure, a key benefit being sooner charging — as little as 20 minutes to go from a ten% to 80% state-of-charge. Right here’s the irony: use a Tesla Supercharger, and that stretches to half-hour due to the decrease amperage they ship. Tesla is barely now rolling out sooner gen-4 chargers. The Ioniq 5 can nonetheless energy again up in 20 minutes with many older CCS chargers utilizing the free adapter.

Driving Impressions On-Street

I began out from my lodge in an Ioniq 5 Restricted, essentially the most lavishly geared up model of the EV. It didn’t take lengthy for me to fall again in love. The crossover is luxury-level quiet and plenty of enjoyable to drive. It has tighter, extra exact steering — with an excellent quantity of street really feel — than most EVs and lots of similar-sized gasoline CUVs. The experience is agency but snug. 

And it proved reassuringly sure-footed as I turned off the I-10 to go up into the mountains and the windy previous blacktop route resulting in the funky village of Idyllwild. That was significantly welcome contemplating how a lot worse the climate bought, seemingly each 1,000 toes larger the street climbed.

By the point I reached my espresso cease for the morning, I used to be dealing with a heavy snow/sleet combination. However I barely needed to decelerate as I lastly began again down towards the Palm Springs desert flooring.

2025 Ioniq 5 XRT Off-Street Driving Impressions

Issues had been dry again down within the desert, excellent news as I shifted into Sand Mode and headed out on a path that wended its approach across the windmills and high-voltage towers now extra prevalent on the outskirts of Palm Springs than cacti and rattlesnakes.

Whereas no stretch for an skilled off-roader, the route nonetheless supplied sufficient challenges to get a way of the XRT’s capabilities, starting from packed clay to powdery sand, with loads of moguls and some steep hills.

Clearly, having the mode selector provides a bonus. Right here, its main position is to regulate the way in which the electrical system distributes torque, one thing that may fluctuate markedly, relying upon what the terrain — and climate situations — throw at you. Modulating energy and selecting mechanically between entrance and rear wheel motors could make a giant distinction, significantly in sand.

Surprisingly, electrical propulsion can provide vital benefits in off-road situations due to the management it provides. And it may well ship gobs of torque when making an attempt to surmount steep hills and different obstacles.

One factor I hadn’t thought of was the benefit provided by regenerative braking — which, on the Ioniq 5, may be assorted anyplace from off to full 1-Pedal mode. With XRT, it really works as an electrical mixture of Hill Climb and Hill Descent Management, permitting you to easily creep alongside, even coming over a steep hill. I simply want Hyundai’s system didn’t need to be reset every time you turn out of drive or shut the automobile off.

2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Closing Ideas

Hyundai retains the variety of Ioniq 5 trim packages and choices pretty restricted — although there are extra choices if you consider commonplace or long-range battery packs and, on some trims, rear or all-wheel-drive.

Pricing for the RWD SE commonplace vary begins at $42,500. On the higher finish, the Restricted AWD — obtainable solely with the long-range pack — goes for $66,100. The brand new 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT — once more, obtainable solely with the prolonged pack and AWD — begins at $55,400.

Whereas not essentially the most inexpensive EV in the marketplace, the 2025 Ioniq 5 delivers plenty of worth for the cash. It has nice driving dynamics and stable efficiency, and it provides higher vary than most fashions in its section. Now, add the XRT package deal, and the automaker is prone to zero in on a wholly new class of consumers.