Haven't done so yet, but I'm keeping my eye on the situation! I can see 3 drawbacks with the present 29 kWh Ioniq EV.
I could be wrong on some of these items, please anyone correct me if so!

1) Range not enough for me; looks like 150 miles (in winter with heating, doing 60?) is achievable; I need 200 to be sure of doing a 160 journey plus margin in case of detours etc.
2) slightly underpowered - 118 hp and 0-60 in 9.9 secs. Amp is 150 hp, ~9 secs.
3) No app to let you remotely pre-warm it, or key-fob pre-warm button like Amp has

Quite a few advantages though: more dealers so easier to get local service, newer satnav, extra driving help auto-cruise-control, newer infotainment, more economical with whatever kWh you paid to put in, ...

I rather like the sound of the new 39 kWh one coming soon. What motor will this have? If it's the one from the 39 kWh Kona, then that's 134 hp, a useful increase, but not quite up to Ampera level. Otoh it may be a lot lighter than the Ampera? Kona 39 kWh is 1535 kg empty, Amp is about 1750 kg, loaded up I think.

Would be really nice to have the Kona 64 kWh motor at 201 hp, but I suspect that's matched to that larger battery, so probably unlikely to see that motor, sadly.

If the range scales up with battery size, then I'd be hoping to see 150 * (39/29) = 200 miles winter range. I could live with that!

 

Thanks Andy, it's one of those shiny new things type situations - and financially it's probably the best time to get rid of the Ampera. Unfortunately, the Ioniq is still a lot of money, and in PX at the dealer, the Ampera loses another couple of grand - and selling it privately scares me to be honest. Also, I'm just not sure the upgrade is worth it actually, jut scared about keeping the Amp and finding after another year say that selling it might be impossible !!

 

I swapped Ampera to Ioniq.

Ioniq is a nicer car to drive. Amazingly efficient - my miles/kWh in the Ioniq are way higher than anything I got with the Ampera. 5 miles/kWh is standard even (on a dry day) in winter.

Pre-heating isn't critical like with the Ampera so no app is only a minor gripe for me. Pre-heating to warm/defrost the car is easy to programme in advance. But even without pre-heating you get hot air within a minute and it has minimal effect on range (unlike heating in the Ampera).

Adaptive cruise and lane keep assist work really well.

I don't regret swapping at all. The Ampera became a bit of a chore fir me because I always wanted to drive it as an EV.

Android auto is great - I never use the inbuilt maps.

Heated seats front and back and heated stearing wheel are great as well.

 

Great to have your feedback, thanks for this! I've sat in one for a few moments at a show, but never driven one. How does it compare for luggage space, comfort, sound quality etc - any obvious differences? What other new goodies maybe like motorised seat adjustment? Auto wipers? Auto dip mirror? The outside dimensions look about the same to me, and the boot looked similar, but you probably have a better feel for this. Is it a 5 seater? (Not that I care about that). I saw a review & some of Bjorn's figures somewhere, suggesting it's a bit wnd-noisy at high speed - any thoughts on that?

 

If I said that swapping mine would cost me about £12k over 5 years - would you say it's still worth swapping, also bearing in mind that we do 90% of our less than 4000 miles a year on 20 mile trips, and maybe 4 140 mile trips a year ?

 

would you say it's still worth swapping,

Only you can judge, financially, environmentally etc.

For 4,000 miles per year all cars are expensive.
I can get 4 m/kWh on motorways at 65mph when around 0c, 120 mile range, increases to 150 in summer and more if slower, but for long journeys (200+ mile ) going slower is more of a hassle.

No regrets except over EH Ms.

 

We have an Ampera, and got rid of a Rav4 hybrid and got an Ioniq to replace it. As Amaferanga says, there are differences. Many more toys on the Ironic, yes it has auto-dipping mirror, wipers, rear cross traffic warnings, blind spot monitoring etc. The electric heated/cooled memory seats are good, as is auto demist, etc etc. The pre-heat feature on the Ampy is missing , but the Ironic soon heats up, the heated steering wheel is warm in 30 seconds. Range wise, we use the Ionic like a normal car - none of this wearing 7 layers of thermals to preserve battery life stuff, and tend to be as little heavy right - footed. We are now showing 128 miles range on a full charge, dropping from 150 in summer.
As a comparison the Ampera dropped from 45 summer range to 28 ish now.

 

Thanks but no thanks, I'm young enough to want a car that I can walk up to and not feel ashamed of getting in - I love EV's but the Ioniq is the only other EV bar Teslas, and 40kw Leafs that I would even consider putting my name to

 

Not an eGolf or an eNiro then..?

 

No I'm afraid not - egolf has got VW written all over it, with the nastiest looking tartan seats I've ever seen - it doesn't even go very far if I remember correctly, and is still expensive because of perceived german quality - eniro, I'm not sure there are any second-hand yet are there ?

the ioniq is just over £20k for a 2 year old (there, everyone will go and buy it now) - so somewhat cheaper than the £30k odd for the others you mentioned.

Having been a bit sarcastic, if I could upgrade the golf interior, and get one about £15k, I could actually be tempted at that - but that range thing bothers me - the ioniq has good range remember. Both the kona and the niro would be great, but there's going to be a 2 year wait before they get anywhere near cheap enough - same for the Leaf 40

 

Good thread to read opinions in. I need a very real 200 mile range to jump to BEV, sadly Ioniq isn't there.

Also worth noting that only 27 of the 197 used Ioniq on autotrader are BEV. They're not selling nearly as many as youdy expect!

 

Also worth noting that only 27 of the 197 used Ioniq on autotrader are BEV. They're not selling nearly as many as youdy expect!

I don't understand you, the hybrid can be bought without delay, BEV, had a long wait and probably still does.

 

the kona and the niro would be great, but there's going to be a 2 year wait before they get anywhere near cheap enough - same for the Leaf 40

I thought the same, I / swmbo managed to hold on to our economic car buying principles for just over a month, before we said stuff it and sprang for the Kona...
I can't do the man maths to make it look like good financial sense, but equally I'm fortunate enough that it's not exactly going to break the bank either so why not?

 

Good thread to read opinions in. I need a very real 200 mile range to jump to BEV, sadly Ioniq isn't there.

Also worth noting that only 27 of the 197 used Ioniq on autotrader are BEV. They're not selling nearly as many as youdy expect!

They're not making many Ioniq Electric s. That's why there's "only" 27. How many do you need?

 

Well 2 years ago there were 158 Hyundai dealers in the UK. So that's a lot of dealers without a used Ioniq EV in stock.

The majority of which are over 100 miles away.

 

Funny that the Ampera and Ioniq are in the same thread. Because I think that they both share a common bond in that both have been massively underrated by many people.

My Leaf 24 went at the end of its 3 year PCP but even with that limited range, it had managed a good 95% of all my normal trips. We had a Jazz that handled all out of range journeys but over the last couple of years that only travelled around 5000 miles. And most of those were for trips that are now inside the 130 miles range of the Ioniq but were outside the 85 miles of the Leaf. Surprising how a 50% range increase made such a big difference.

That meant that it was hard to justify retaining the Jazz and it went into the finance mixer to buy the Ioniq. All really long range trips will now be by hire car. But any journey requiring just a single charge each way will be taken by Ioniq.

The Ionic is a fine car. Refined and smooth. Its best feature is the coasting ability using the steering wheel paddles. Used sensibly that can make for a satisfying drive and certainly adds range. The car is incredibly 'slippy' and can coast for very long distances on open level roads with the paddles adding regen as required to moderate speed and then removed to coast again. It becomes a game to see how far you can travel with zero energy input and without any other inconvenience than a few strokes on paddles. And we all know that coasting is by far the most efficient way to travel - with regen never recovering all spent energy however well it's set.

Anyone pondering a change from an Ampera could do a lot worse than an Ionic if its still limited range is not a deal breaker.

 

Anyone pondering a change from an Ampera could do a lot worse than an Ionic if its still limited range is not a deal breaker.

I've just changed from a Leaf 30 to the Ioniq and have been meaning to post something about the differences but I think you've summarised most of what I would have said.

One thing I would add and which totally took me by surprise is the amount of regen available when fully charged and in cold weather. Nearly 50kW! I guess eating into the 5% reserve.

It also seems much happier driving at normal motorway speeds and is very responsive in sport mode with range being around 30% better than my Leaf on my motorway commute. I'm assuming that doesn't put it far off a Leaf 40?

Re the availability, Drive Electric have had both BEV models available for immediate delivery for at least the last 3 months or so although PCH only and looks like the SE is no longer in stock.

Maybe there aren't many available used as no one wants to give them up