Family car review: 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 EV

How big is the boot of the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6?

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 boot is nice and spacious. With a big opening, you can easily post prams etc into it.

The boot of the Hyundai Ioniq 6 will hold fifteen shopping bags, which is one more than the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Polestar 2 fitting fourteen and three more than the Volvo C40 Recharge holding twelve bags of shopping in the boot.

The Jiffle Wagon versatile 6-in-1 pram with its seat fits nicely in the boot of the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 with room for a bag of shopping. The Jiffle wagon holds up to 60kg of cargo inside the wagon too so you have heaps of extra storage and you don't have to unload it to put it into the boot.

The Jiffle Wagon 6-in-1 pram with its bassinet fits nicely in the boot of the Ioniq 6, with room for one bag of shopping.

The Jiffle Wagon 6-in-1 pram with its cart fits nicely in the boot of the Ioniq 6, with lots of room for six bags of shopping.

With its compativle Infasecure Adapt More Infant capsule installed into the Ioniq 6…

…the Jiffle Wagon 6-in-1 pram fits nicely in the boot of the Ioniq 6, with lots of room for five bags of shopping.

If your family has a fur baby, then you can't transport it in the boot of the Ioniq 6 because it has a fixed parcel shelf.

The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as the kids lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.

Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.

I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.

The twin side-by-side stroller fits in the boot of the Ioniq 6 with five shopping bags beside it.

How good is storage in the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6?

In the cabin of the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6, the interior is minimal with great storage. The central console bridge has a large storage tray underneath which is great for your handbag, iPad or shoes. The central console box underneath the armrest is good for storing sunglasses.

The central console has two cup holders that are a good size to hold a reusable or disposable coffee cup and a wireless phone charging pad in front of them too.

The glove box is a large drawer (like in the Ioniq 5), which is a fantastic solution in comparison to regular glove boxes. It has lots of room to spare with my iPad, wallet and the owner's manual!

The door bins in the front of the Ioniq 6 will hold a water bottle and an iPad fits well too. There is a ridge along all the doors that a phone can slot comfortably into, the rear doors have the same ridge along them too.

There are net map pockets on the back of both front seats. They will hold a book or an iPad but not conceal it.

There are two USB-C charging sockets in the back of the central console box for rear passengers to charge devices while travelling along and a little storage area below for phones too.

The rear footwell is flat, which is great for allowing passengers to pass through from one side to the other easily and means central seat passengers have no hump to straddle and more room for their feet. There is also a household plug socket in the rear footwell which is handy for charging laptops etc.

There is a fold-down armrest in the central seatback with two cup holders that will hold a reusable and disposable coffee cup.

How noisy is the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6? How good is the media system in the 2023 Ioniq 6?

The 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 is very quiet, even by electric car standards! It starts silently which helps families have a calm, quiet start to their drive. The ride is smooth and there are few unnecessary beeps and whistles.

The media system in the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 is modern, and easy to navigate and the white background make it visibly easier on the eye because it gets a lot less reflections and glare.

The driver display screen is clearly visible and shows you your battery range clearly.

All models of the Ioniq 6 have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The media system is so simple and intuitive to use and there are some great features for families within it that we enjoyed during our week of family testing.

Like ‘Quiet mode' that mutes the sound in the speakers in the back and brings it to the front speakers which is great for when little ones fall asleep on journeys or are on their devices in the back.

‘Voice memo' is nice to record those lovely conversations you have with kids in the car… you can even download your recordings to a USB stick to hear them on your computer later. Or come up with new sausage recipes like Kel from Kath & Kim!

You can control the climate in the media screen…

… as well as seeing the battery range using aircon and not when planning your journey.

The cameras in the Hyundai Ioniq 6 have very clear images…

… and there's also a 3D exterior camera, which is really useful when parking too.

You can turn the parking sensors and cameras on and off easily with buttons down below the media screen. There are indicator cameras too that come up in the driver's display screen.

Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!

That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.

If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?

It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?

A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.

Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!

I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.

The indicators are not too loud in the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and you can lock the doors and windows using the buttons in the central console.

These controls would normally be in the driver's door but it has no buttons in it. The gears that are usually in the central console are positioned on an indicator-like lever behind the steering wheel (but the end twists rather than you moving it up and down like you would in a Tesla).

When it comes to charging the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 it is pretty simple. The button for the charging socket is by the driver's right knee.

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 I tested has a very practical battery range of 600km+. We found this to be more than enough battery range for our family's week driving to school drop-offs etc and it is a long enough distance we'd be confident to drive on holidays too and have enough distance between chargers.

Using the key fob, you can drive the Ioniq 6 backwards and forwards from outside the car! This is a great feature for families when getting in and out of tight car parking spaces or garages when you don't want your kids opening the car door into another vehicle or wall!

How many child seats fit in the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6?

There are ISOFix points in the two outer rear seats of the Ioniq 6, which are not within plastic guides but are nice and easy to connect to.

There are top tether anchorages on the parcel shelf behind all three rear seatbacks in the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6. They are within labelled plastic guides and are easy to connect to because of the spacious interior.

For families that need to, three Infasecure child seats fit really nicely in the rear seats; I installed the Infasecure Attain More and Momentum More forward-facing and the Infasecure Adapt More Infant Capsule rear-facing. With two child seats installed, there was enough room for me to sit between the two seats.

There is a household plug socket in the rear footwell and no big hump in the rear footwell, which makes it super easy for passengers to move about in the rear and comfier for me to sit in the central seat as I don't have to straddle any hump in the footwell with my feet.

Legroom is extremely good in the Ioniq 6 and a 186cm+ passenger or driver could fit in front of a rear-facing Infasecure Adapt More Infant Capsule, making this a great choice for tall families with young infants.

Posting Bub into their child seats in the back from inside and outside the car is nice and easy. The door openings are big and there is plenty of interior space.

Australia being a country of weather extremes; blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!

I found there is room to feed Bub in the back with a child seat installed.

How comfortable is the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6? And How good is the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 to drive?

The front seats of the Hyundai Ioniq 6 are super comfortable and adjustable using controls on the side of the seat bases. They are divided by a slim central console giving much-needed personal space to parents.

For a mum travelling in the back with bub, the seats are very comfortable.

There is no hump in the footwell so there is plenty of space to put your feet and good kick room.

I found I could sit between two child seats in the back.

The seats are perforated leather in the front-end back which will trap kids' crumbs and spills.

For the first year of my first daughters life when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with her so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time in them! They were never something I gave any thought to before but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!

The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down.

The cruise controls are on the left set of controls on the steering wheel and are easy to use. I found the cruise control to be very accurate on both motorways and at lower speeds on undulating roads.

The gear lever is a twist stalk behind the steering wheel.

There are four air-conditioning vents in the front of the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6. Four across the front dashboard; two below the media screen and one at either end of the dash…

… and air-conditioning vents in the back of the central console box for rear passengers.

There are climate controls on the dash…

…as well as in the front media screen. I particularly like that you can select “driver only” to save battery when nobody else is in the car.

There are handles above both rear doors that are well-positioned to hang a toy for rear-facing passengers.

I have found our kids do not like travelling in the dark in the car so if it gets dark whilst travelling then I reach back and turn the interior light on for her. So it’s really important for me that I can reach the rear ceiling light.

Also if I am traveling home and it is getting near to bed time and I DEFINITELY DON’T want her to fall asleep in the car as even a five-minute nap in the car means bed time is all over!!!! I lean back and pop the light on so it’s not dark and try to keep her awake!! Along with screaming/singing at the top of my voice!!!

It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.

Visibility is pretty good in the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 and it is improved even more by the rearview camera…

…and the indicator camera.

One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and my daughter has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread parking new cars as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, but the Ioniq 6 was simple to park as the visibility with the cameras is very good!

How safe is the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6?

The 20223 Hyundai Ioniq 6 has been given a 5-star ANCAP safety rating. It comes with seven airbags as standard including dual frontal, side chest-protecting and side head-protecting, curtain airbags and a centre airbag which provides added protection to front-seat occupants in side-impact crashes is also standard on all variants.

The 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 scored 97% for adult occupancy protection and 88% for child occupancy protection in the ANCAP crash testing.

Of the child occupancy testing ANCAP said;

As standard, all models of the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 come with adaptive cruise control (ACC), anti-lock braking system (ABS),  autonomous emergency braking (AEB)-(Car-to-Car, VRU, Backover, Junction Assist), automatic emergency call (eCall), blind spot monitor (BSM), child presence alert, electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), electronic data recorder (EDR), electronic stability control (ESC), emergency brake assist (EBA), emergency stop signal (ESS), fatigue reminder, fatigue monitor/detection, forward collision warning (FCW), lane departure warning (LDW), lane keep assist (LKA), rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA), reversing collision avoidance (camera), roll stability system, secondary / multi-collision brake, speed assistance – auto / intelligent speed limiter, speed assistance – manual speed limiter and speed assistance – speed sign recognition & warning.