...you can buy it, and people think you got a Golf size car, but the message should be "look, I can afford something bigger" That's the American thinking. People will think I can only afford a hatchback and therefore I must be poor!" This Ioniq 5 is clearly not for Americans. Or rather, not for the average American taste. They're going to make the same car in a different shape, with a more conventional SUV look to it, almost certainly bigger overhang, more aggressive appearance and tons of bling and all that rubbish like chrome and so forth, and, of course, a more cramped, cockpity type dash facing towards the driver. THAT is for the Americans. It will get the Genesis badge, and I assume the KIA will be somewhere in between, for Americans who can't afford the Genesis and Europeans who are in their sixties and want to drive a boring granny car. European thinking is, "great, I get that extra space and it still looks like a hatchback" This IONIQ is spot on for Europe. It's going to sell like crazy. The KIA version will probably still be moderate enough to get some market share, but the Genesis brand will likely never make it to Europe, unless they radically change their design towards much cleaner lines and far less overplushed interiors. But that doesn't make any sense IMO, because a Luxury car by European standards is by definition made in Britain, Germany or Italy, so Genesis doesn't qualify in the first place, and making Genesis more European would reduce its appeal for Americans. So IONIQ is for Europe, Genesis for America and KIA in between. KIA is the world average Joe car brand, and that's a great place to be. Average Joe is well represented in world population and the more progressiv third of this segment starts buying EV's, at least in Europe. EV sales skyrocketed all over Europe in 2020. Last year, more EV's have been sold in Germany alone than in the United States. So things are happening in Europe right now, and that sets the stage for brand and model policies of the Koreans right now. So considering the above, here's my take on the Ioniq 5: It charges faster overall than every other EV on the market. That alone is pretty incredible. But it ticks all the other boxes as well, Porsche 800V charging tech, with the largest, fastest growing Hypercharger Network being all 350kW/1000V CCS chargers, and Hyundai being part of the club running it, absolutely brilliant, timeless, all European exterior and interior design with just the right amount of buttons, manual and automated controls to appeal to almost everyone, better performance and more space than every fossil competitor and similar specifications as the Model Y LR for a slightly lower price (and we will likely see an N version closing the gap to the MY Performance), a front boot for charging equipment and the like, full one pedal driving, level two self driving as standard with level three promised for 2023 as OTA update (for which they don't ask 10k a few years in advance), 3.6kW power outlet, reclining seats, adjustable rear seats, the lot. Clearly the car of the year 2021 in every way. Everyone except Tesla pushed out their latest and greatest last year to match Hyundai/KIA's fossil platform based offerings. Most of these cars just start trickling in and now Hyundai set themselves apart with this next generation EV. Not only are they the first to adopt 800V tech in a mass market product, they exploit the conceptual advantages of EV's more than anyone else as well.

It's actually quite big. The wheelbase itself is 3 meters in length