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2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Brings All the Right Updates

Refresh means the award-winning EV is now the first mass-produced, non-Tesla with an NACS J3400 port.

The 2025 Ioniq 5 XRT offers up to 320 hp, the same as the AWD versions of the 2024 model. (Hyundai)

The place doesn’t look like much: A Sonic drive-through in Cathedral City, California, and a row of eight Tesla Superchargers. But the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 I’m driving is helping to kick off a revolution in EV charging. The Korean automaker’s popular SUV is the world’s first non-Tesla to integrate a native North American Charging System (NACS) SAE J3400 plug, as most major automakers rush to ditch their CCS connectors in favor of Tesla’s ubiquitous, ultra-reliable network.

The NACS J3400 connector is the headline change for the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5’s mid-cycle refresh. (Hyundai)

With fingers crossed, I plug the pleasingly lightweight Supercharger plug — which pairs AC and DC links on a single connector — into the Ioniq 5’s charging port, ignoring disdainful looks from a Model S driver next to me. After connecting via the Tesla app, the Ioniq 5 begins charging at a reasonable 126-kW.

We stuff the Ioniq 5’s battery from 24% to 80% in 25 minutes, adding 147 miles (237 km) of driving range. That’s faster than a Tesla Model 3 could manage, despite a key handicap that Hyundai is working to address: like other EVs with sophisticated 800-volt architectures, including Porsches and Lucids, the Hyundai’s maximum charging rate is limited by Tesla’s increasingly outdated V3 Superchargers, with their nominal 470 volts.

Red tow connectors and “digital camo” body cladding differentiate the XRT from other flavors of the updated Ioniq 5. (Hyundai)

“We’re working to boost that charging rate,” said Karl Holodnick, an engineering manager for power electronics at Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. (HATCI) near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Holodnick, riding shotgun in my car, says Hyundai engineers have developed a good working relationship with Tesla’s Supercharger team, to ensure their Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EVs are compatible with Tesla’s 17,000-strong Supercharging network. While the Model 3 can exceed the Hyundai’s 126-kW pace for brief periods, Holodnick helped optimize software to deliver a more-robust charging curve overall.

The 2025 Ioniq 5 XRT has 18-inch wheels and all-terrain 235/60R18 tires to take advantage of the EV’s Sand, Mud, and Snow drive modes. (Hyundai)

Track down a CCS charger – Hyundai is giving CCS adapters to buyers to cover all charging bases – and the Ioniq 5 can charge at up to 257 kW, more than twice its pace on Superchargers and up from 233 kW for the 2024 model. The result is a zippy 20-minute charge from 10-to-80%, versus 30 minutes (for Ioniq 5 Long Range models) on a Supercharger.

The NACs connector is the headline change for the Ioniq 5’s mid-cycle refresh. It’s designed to boost EV adoption that has slowed a bit, even as Americans bought a record 1.3 million EVs last year, up 8.3% from 2023. But Hyundai Motor Group, now second only to Tesla in U.S. EV sales, sought other ways to sustain momentum for its award-winning, handsomely angular SUV. Battery packs are now about 8% larger, with 63 or 84 kWh in Standard or Long Range models. Driving range jumps accordingly, including a maximum 318 miles (512 km) in single-motor Long Range models.

Power output is unchanged, with a choice of 168 or 225 hp from the single-motor models, and 320 in AWD versions. But on an all-day drive near Palm Springs, the Ioniq 5 underscored the design and technology that’s made it one of the most successful mainstream EVs: a space-efficient cabin, aided by a longer wheelbase than Hyundai’s beefiest SUV, the three-row Palisade. Lavish features, thoughtful design and craftsmanship. Brisk acceleration, a dead-quiet cabin and supple road manners.

The Hyundai’s four selectable levels of brake regeneration remain a strong point that other EV makers should emulate, including a clever Smart mode that automatically adjusts regen based on radar sensing of cars ahead.

The Ioniq 5’s strikingly conjoined display screens grow slightly larger at 12.3 inches per screen, with faster processing speeds, more-accurate GPS and improved OTA update capability. Hyundai’s Level 2 driver assist systems, already a top performer among mainstream brands, work even better. The Ioniq 5 worked with impressive precision on highways, with none of the ping-ponging between lane markers that mars some competing systems. The driver-assistance suite adds a driver-monitoring camera with hands-on detection and haptic alerts through the steering wheel.

The 2025 Ioniq 5 goes back to basics with a new row of hard switches in the center console for things like seat heaters, audio volume and tuning knobs. (Hyundai)

This 2025 version bucks button-free trends by adding a row of hard switches to its sliding center console, for seat heat and other functions, along with new audio volume and tuning knobs. New pixelated LED lights on the steering wheel flash to show charging progress. And stop the presses: There’s now a rear window wiper, addressing serial complaints from owners in wintry climes.

Hyundai already offers a rollicking Ioniq 5 N that delivers up to 641 hp, and a fun-to-drive quotient that tops many pricier EVs. For 2025, Hyundai cast its sights off-road — or at least camping trails or icy driveways — with a new XRT model with sturdy 18-inch wheels that recall the “steelies” of old. All-terrain tires, drive modes for Sand, Mud and Snow, a 1-inch (25 mm) body lift and handsome “digital camo” body cladding round out the package. We drove the XRT through some desert washes and gullies near Palm Springs

A 2025 Ioniq 5 can be had for as little as $43,975, and tops out at $59,575 for a Limited AWD version. And where the Ioniq 5 had been shut out of consumer tax credits due to its Korean manufacture, that may well change. Later this year, Hyundai will switch Ioniq 5 production to its sparkling, $7.6 billion “Metaplant” in Georgia. Company executives are confident the homegrown Ioniq 5 will qualify for a full $7,500 tax credit — for as long as credits last, with the Trump administration determined to eliminate public support for EV purchases or public charging.

Topics:
Active safety systems Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) Architecture Batteries Batteries Battery packs Charge couplers Connectivity Connectivity Consoles Electric vehicles Electrical systems Electrification Electronic control systems Energy storage systems Engine/Powertrain LEDs Light emitting diodes (LEDs) Power Management Power electronics Steering systems Steering wheels Vehicle charging Vehicles

More From SAE Media Group

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    Automotive Engineering Magazine

    This article first appeared in the April, 2025 issue of Automotive Engineering Magazine (Vol. 12 No. 3).

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    Transcript

    00:00:00 [Music] the transition to SAE J 3400 for EV charging has hit another Milestone with vehicles without the Tesla logo being outfitted with the charging port standard one of the first vehicles to hit the market with Native Knack is the 2025 Hyundai ionic [Music] 5 I'm here with the 2025 ionx 5 and

    00:00:28 you're probably thinking to yourself well he's parked next to us Tesla charger this vehicle comes with an adapter well no it is actually from the factory outfitted with KNX Saj 3400 this has the Tesla Port the port that all the other automakers are moving to this is the first mass produc mass production vehicle in North America that doesn't have a Tesla badge on it that ships from

    00:00:50 the factory with that port in fact just to start this whole thing we're going to charge it currently you have to use the Tesla app but Hyundai does say that they will have plug-in charge available uh in the next few quarters but you just use the app here and we'll just give it a plug it in and that is it you wait a few moments

    00:01:17 and it will start charging what's interesting is how seamless the Tesla system is and that's probably because there are so many charging stations out there that they've learned from over the years the inal Tesla superchargers weren't all perfect they weren't as easy in plug-and playay but they learned because they have so many stations and they've been at this for so long they

    00:01:39 are the top tier charging Network and that is why so many automakers decided to move to the nacs KNX SAE J 3400 standard so it gives options to folks who are out there with their EVS that aren't Tesla's the ability to charge this Hyundai ionic 5 at a supercharging station [Music] behind the wheel it essentially feels

    00:02:06 like the 2024 ionic 5 uh except of course now you have that KN and you have a larger battery pack uh whether you're getting the standard battery or the long range battery the standard battery went from 58 KW hours to 63 kwatt hours and the long range battery went from 77.4 KW hours to 84 kwatt hours so you're getting a little bit more battery without taking up more space they've

    00:02:34 done a lot of things with the chemistry of this vehicle so now it charges even quicker so you're getting more capacity you're getting quicker charging and essentially the same area of battery so what does that mean in actual real world driving up to 318 Mi of range from the rear wheel drive long range uh regular ionic 5 that's 15 MI more than the 2024 model on the rear wheeel drive

    00:03:03 trim level with the long range battery for the standard battery the range increased to 245 miles from 220 it doesn't seem like a lot but dayto day that means you get the charge less that means less time at the charger while you're traveling from your house to say I don't know Grandma's uh to go see a fish concert whatever you like to do in your spare time maybe you're taking your

    00:03:26 grandma to a fish concert and that charging speed well it gets a little complicated at the Tesla supercharging stations it only charges up to 135 now that has to do with Tesla's uh version 3 architecture of their Chargers those are 500 volt Chargers so the vehicle this vehicle is an 800 volt vehicle so it has to sort of step down so because of that you don't

    00:03:51 get the up to 257 kilow that this vehicle is capable of but if you get the uh CCS the ax adapter for this vehicle if you find yourself say a not Tesla charger that is go that is has an 800 volt architecture and will charge up to 350 or 400 uh kilow then this vehicle has the potential to charge it up to 257 which again is faster than the 2024

    00:04:22 so you're getting again faster charging more range from the update to this vehicle now I talk a lot about uh preconditioning your vehicle while you're driving usually that means putting a charging station along your route and telling the vehicle that you're going to a charging station uh with the update of the 2025 ionic 5 you

    00:04:46 can manually precondition your vehicle you can just go into the EV there's battery conditioning and you just hit activate and you're good to go so if you want to continue to use a third party mapping program in order to get to your destination instead of using Hyundai's which would precondition your vehicle along your route as you're getting close to a charging station you can use Google

    00:05:11 Maps Apple maps map quest that that's still a thing you can use those in order to do your your uh your routing and as you get close to a charging station you can just manually precondition your battery to get it ready to go when you plug it into a charger meanwhile the interior has undergone a nice upgrade which means more buttons more physical buttons uh people have

    00:05:37 complained people have said they want more buttons they want fewer uh controls in the screen and Hyundai listened which is great for an automaker to listen to its customers when they say I want to be able to touch things so the heated seats the heated steering wheel those are now physical buttons you don't have to go into the screen in order to take care of that the same thing with the uh the

    00:05:58 parking buttons they've also added a track and uh forward and back button for tracking and tuning is no longer a little switch that goes up and down tuning your radio actually a knob just like the volume knob and a nice addition and something I'm very happy to report is that there is in there is an incar monitoring system that makes sure that you're paying attention to the road this

    00:06:20 is especially important when you're using Advanced drivers assistance uh systems those systems for some people can lead to those people not paying attention to what's going on maybe they look away maybe they are trusting the lane centering and the adaptive cruise control too much uh having these sorts of systems that keeps an eye on your face and make sure that you're paying

    00:06:43 attention to the road is Paramount to safety it just makes the road safer not just for you the driver but for your passengers and for everyone else on the road now we've been driving the 2025 ionic 5 but this this is a bit of a surprise in the ionic lineup this is the ionic 5 xrt this is their off-road version of the ionic 5 you get the same uh battery pack you get the same 800

    00:07:13 volt architecture you get the same J 3400 Port but in a more off-road friendly package now the wheel clearance has been lifted about an inch the suspension has gotten a nice tuning for off-roading and more importantly when you're looking at this vehicle you'll notice that the bumper both the front and rear have been essentially shaved off this means that

    00:07:37 the approach angle has been increased from 17.5 de to 19.8 de and the departure angle has been increased from 25.4 de to 30° this allows for you to enter a uh a slope at a sharper angle so the a higher angle slope you'll be able to pull off with this vehicle that you wouldn't be able to do with a regular ionic 5 and if you happen to get stuck you have these

    00:08:04 really nice tow hooks that absolutely everyone can see no matter where you go so now we are in the xrt I'm here with Tommy Micah uh Tommy is from tfl thanks Robbie for having me the fast lane uh Tommy knows far more about off-road vehicles than I do Hyundai has putting this on an offro is track I mean is not on the road so technically it is off-road uh this vehicle the uh xrt has

    00:08:32 an additional 1 in of clearance um they have sort of shaved off the front and rear bumpers for additional uh approach while this is definitely not going to compete with say a uh a Wrangler or a Bronco uh this is a bit of a fun little vehicle for off-roading you know on on some you know some washboard Road some dirt roads and in sand in fact it has a sand mode which

    00:09:04 allows the vehicle to sort of you know keep all the wheels turning and away so you can keep going forward now they have this tiny slightly technical bit lot of rocks uh Tommy you've driven through this what what do you as a as a off-road effici a how do you feel about the the xr2 I think it's a pretty mild treatment to an otherwise very road-going car right so 7 in of ground clearance is

    00:09:31 enough to maybe get you to the trail head but you're realistically not going to be taking this car deep into an Offroad Trail right so if you've got like a favorite mountain bike area that's maybe over a rough two track or you know a light Forest Road this is going to be perfect but if you for example wanted to hit that crazy Camp spot in Moab you may want to look

    00:09:52 elsewhere now the big thing I will say um from a performance standpoint Roberto is the tires right pretty good grip out of these tires I'm pretty impressed yeah they uh they are off-road tires they're not and again like a rang they are not a Wrangler you know they they are not extreme off-road tires they are not you know again we'll we'll keep talking about Moab uh which is the you

    00:10:12 know one of the toughest courses you could be uh driving on this is definitely not something you should take up there in fact most people probably shouldn't be taking most of their stock there but like if you you know if you didn't want to change tires right out of the box on your very expensive um new ionic 5 this could be a good option now there's also a bunch of visual changes

    00:10:36 in this this vehicle right so we've got xrt like on the doors we have xrt on the seats which is kind of cool so it very much gives you an impression that like hey I I didn't just buy a standard crossover I bought something more in line with a modern day Subaru so I think that's cool it's definitely a good appearance or different appearance I should say the the bumpers are a little

    00:10:55 polarizing um I actually like them I I I enjoy but I I think you talked about this earlier I don't like them on the white vehicle I like them on green or and then they have a red and a blue which unfortunately uh Hyundai doesn't have for us today so we can't see what they look like but on any other color but white on white it sort of ends up looking a bit like a panda I I think

    00:11:17 you're right no that's a that's a good point but look I'm glad that Hyundai is kind of Dipping their toes into the offroad world with with EVS the direct competitor to this the Ford Maki rally is another example of a of a road goinging SUV that they tried to make a little bit more rugged and then of course if you do genuinely want to tackle some more extreme stuff you've

    00:11:36 got Vehicles like the electric G wagon the rivan and the Cyber Tru that'll take you further yeah yeah I I think this like you said this is a nice uh I'm going camping uh maybe you live up a dirt road and you still want an EV and you like the fact that the Hyundai have this vehicle has an 800 volt architecture just like the regular 2025 ionic 5 that means you're going to be

    00:11:56 charging up up to 250 um it also has uh the KNX uh Port which means you can Char charge at V3 and above Tesla superchargers plus any other chargers out there that have that Max SAE j34 uh cable and you're also getting that you know that Hyundai efficiency which I find you know very compelling for an EV U is the efficiency numbers Hyundai Hyundai are typically very

    00:12:26 efficient which means you're getting more miles per charge which you know the direct com comparison is that to a car that gets like say 40 m per gallon yeah it's always [Music] good so the 2025 ionic 5 uh it is uh a really substantial update especially in the evolution of electric vehicles again it is the first uh production vehicle

    00:12:55 that is does not have a Tesla badge on it that comes standard with the KNX Port which means you can plug into uh a majority of the Tesla superchargers out there V3 and above and of course upcoming uh Max enabled J 3400 enabled charging stations from Electrify America Evo charge Point charge Point actually already has their Omni Port out in the field so it is the evolution in a

    00:13:27 way that we are all going to be using the same Chargers over the next few years which should make a uh building these vehicles much easier because everyone's using the same thing to build it and more importantly uh for the average individual that's looking to transition to an EV or looking to get a new EV um there is no more well Tesla Envy at the

    00:13:51 charging stations more coverage of sustainability EVs and charging be sure to subscribe to SAE International [Music]

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