Hyundai Ioniq 2020 review: Plug-in Hybrid Premium

As with the BEV and Hybrid, the PHEV comes in two flavours, Elite and Premium, the latter being the car I drove for the week. The PHEV itself is a plug-in hybrid, meaning the car is capable of running purely electric, in combination with an internal-combustion engine and on the ICE alone when the battery runs out.

For the 2020 update, prices are up - the Hybrid's increases by $800, the BEV by a whopping $3500, with the PHEV landing a $1000 whack. Hyundai justifies the price increase with more equipment, but the BEV's electric range boost not translate to the PHEV. Even a few kilometres extra range wouldn't have gone astray. Selfishly, EV pricing should be going south not north to lure customers.

The huge new 10.25-inch touchscreen hosts a very impressive multimedia system.

For $46,490 you'll score 16-inch alloys, dual-zone climate control (with driver-only energy-saving option), an eight-speaker sound system, reversing camera, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, electric driver's seat with memory, sat nav, auto LED headlights, auto wipers, heated windscreen, heated and powered mirrors, ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel and a tyre-repair kit instead of a spare tyre.

The huge new 10.25-inch touchscreen hosts a very impressive multimedia system that displays a lot of information about the car's electric drivetrain while also running Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and DAB+ digital radio.

It doesn't look like a big boot - the plug-in's is smaller than the other two - but it swallows 341 litres (446 when filled to the roof) with seats in place and if you drop the rear seats, the space jumps to an impressive 1401 litres.

Front and rear rows each feature a pair of cupholders and each door has bottle holders, for a total of four.

Three across is a distant dream and there isn't a lot of headroom, either.

Front-seat passengers have plenty of room, commensurate with a car the same size. The rear is a little tight for my 180cm frame when I'm behind my own driving position, but I'd be fine for a short to medium trip because my feet fit under the front seat. Three across is a distant dream and there isn't a lot of headroom, either.

It doesn't look like a big boot, but it swallows 1401 litres with the rear seats dropped.

No real change for the 2020 PHEV - it packs a 1.6-litre naturally aspirated engine developing 77kW and 147Nm. Crammed into the chassis with it is an 8.9kWh battery powering a 44kW electric motor. When the engine is turning the wheels, power reaches the front ones via a six-speed twin-clutch transmission.

Once those figures are put together and all the usual mechanical losses accounted for, the total power available is 104kW and 265Nm, shifting 1550kg. The 0-100km/h experience is, shall we say, relaxed.

The combined-cycle fuel figure for the Ioniq PHEV is a measly 1.1L/100km. I've always found Hyundai to be pretty close on the claimed figures, but this one is obviously skewed by the testing regime and I'm pretty sure the company will concede that. For most of the week I had the car, it got around on purely electric power, with the petrol engine kicking in on the last couple of days, resulting in 3.2L/100km, which is still pretty good.

The combined-cycle fuel figure for the Ioniq PHEV is a measly 1.1L/100km.

The PHEV will charge in a six or seven hours from a domestic power socket without drama. Even with just a 43-litre tank, the indicated range nudges over 900km with a full battery and tank.

If you want to know where the nearest fast(ish) charge station is, the big touchscreen keeps a little bar active telling you. From home, the nearest one to me was nearly 12km away. If you've got range anxiety and nowhere to charge, it's both handy and sobering to know this figure.

As with the rest of the Hyundai range, the PHEV comes with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. The capped-price servicing regime lasts for the same period of time and will hit you for just $1525 over five years, or just over $300 per year.

Roadside assist starts with 12 months and with every service at Hyundai, you get another 12 months.