Hyundai Ioniq 5 interest targets 15,000 as price announcement looms

The new Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric crossover has people queuing to own one of the first examples, with thousands logging their details with the Korean car maker ahead of the car’s launch.

By early this week Hyundai had taken 8756 expressions of interest on its Australian website – but the brand is aiming even higher.

Hyundai wants to tempt 15,000 Australians to register their interest in the Ioniq 5 ahead of the sleek new EV’s arrival in Australia within months.

UPDATE: Hyundai Ioniq 5 Australian pricing and specifications confirmed
UPDATE: Hyundai Ioniq 5 on sale October 12, less than 400 coming to Australia

“We’ve never seen interest like it,” said Hyundai Australia general manager of communications Bill Thomas. “It’s an exceptional number.”

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Hyundai says the recently-arrived new Tucson mid-sized SUV – which competes with the Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5 – managed more online expressions of interest, but that “Tucson aims at a much broader market”.

Hyundai says it will release the all-important pricing for the Ioniq 5 in coming weeks ahead of first arrivals by October.

Overseas pricing suggests the Ioniq 5 could eventually undercut the Tesla Model 3. In the UK the Ioniq 5 is cheaper than the Tesla Model 3 SR+ and in New Zealand the Ioniq 5 is priced identically to the Kona Electric, which in Australia sells from $62,000 plus on-road costs, a few grand more than the SR+.

The Ioniq 5 is also expected to be priced to take advantage of the various EV incentives and rebates on offer around Australia. That means a starting price below $68,000.

However, due to the unprecedented interest and anticipated challenges in getting hold of enough supply early on, Hyundai will focus on more expensive models for the initial batch of cars.

That means only the bigger 72.6kWh battery pack initially (the smaller 58kWh battery is expected to arrive later). That 72.6kWh can be had as a rear-drive single motor model with up to 481km of WLTP range or as a dual-motor setup with less EV range.

While the mechanically-similar Kia EV6 will only use the larger long range battery pack in Australia, Hyundai is expected to eventually offer both.

Either way, expect the Ioniq 5 and EV6 to be among the most serious challengers to Tesla’s EV throne.

It’s indicative of the growing interest in EVs beyond Tesla, which has dominated the market with its Model 3.

And Hyundai is only just getting started.

The company believes it can boost those online registrations to 15,000, such is the interest in the Ioniq 5.

As for how many of those logging their interest will go on to buy one, Hyundai believes it could tempt about 2 percent of them, so perhaps a few hundred early in the car’s life.

The Ioniq 5 is a very different machine to Hyundai’s other EVs. Whereas the regular Ioniq (minus the 5) and Kona Electric utilise a regular ICE architecture adapted for electricity, the Ioniq 5 started as a clean sheet design.

That means more interior space due to the optimised layout of core components such as the electric motor, battery pack and inverters.

The Ioniq 5 is based on the new E-GMP architecture that also underpins the rival Kia EV6, which could be priced from around $65,000.

Both the Ioniq 5 and EV6 are capable of 800V DC fast charging and have vehicle-to-load functionality, allowing external devices to be powered from a regular powerpoint.