Hyundai Ioniq 6 - Practicality, comfort and boot space

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 has a very roomy interior, although it doesn’t feel as spacious and airy up front as the Ioniq 5. That’s partly because the Ioniq 6 features a large centre console, rather than the flat, open floor in its hatchback sibling.

At least you get plenty of storage space underneath the centre console, along with two cupholders and another cubby underneath the armrest. The centre console houses the controls for the windows, which is unusual. There’s a wireless phone charging pad on the console, although we found that devices can fall off quite easily.

Instead of a conventional glovebox, the Ioniq 6 features a very clever slide-out drawer that’s deeper than the glovebox in the BMW i4. Meanwhile, passengers in the rear have cupholders in the armrest, a pair of air vents, plus USB ports to keep their devices topped up.

Size

The Ioniq 6 is 4,855mm long, 1,880mm wide (excluding side mirrors) and 1,495mm tall. That means it’s longer than the Ioniq 5 and significantly lower, too. That’s obvious from the car’s shape, though: the roofline is sleeker, and the overhang behind the rear wheels is where that extra length comes from. It’s also longer, taller and wider than a BMW i4, although not by a huge amount.

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Leg room, head room & passenger space

Unfortunately that rakish roofline does mean that there’s not as much room in the back seats for adults as you get in the Ioniq 5 hatchback. The roof slopes down over the seats and taller people will find their head brushing against it, which can get annoying on longer trips. 

There’s plenty of legroom, though, and kids will be very comfortable in the back, especially as every model comes with heated rear seats. The tallest adults may also find that the low roofline affects them up front as well. The Ioniq 6 comes with ISOFIX child seat mounting points on the outer positions on the rear bench.

Boot

The boot in the Ioniq 6 is wide and long but quite shallow, and the opening itself isn’t the most practical shape – especially when compared to the hatchback tailgates on the BMW i4, Polestar 2, and Volkswagen ID.7. The Ioniq 6’s 401-litre boot is on par with that in both the Polestar and Tesla Model 3, though. Plus, there’s a further 45 litres of storage in the ‘frunk’ under the bonnet, which is useful for charging cables, but in the AWD model, this shrinks to a close-to-useless 14.5 litres. 

You can fold down the 60:40-split back seats in the Ioniq 6, but they can only be operated by levers in the boot, not from the cabin. And with them down, you’re left with a narrow opening here, too.

Towing

The Ioniq 6 can tow up to 1,500kg, whether you opt for a RWD or AWD model. This is okay and better than many electric cars that aren’t rated for towing at all, but it’s still not ideal, and a combustion, hybrid or plug-in hybrid car is probably still a better bet for those who tow regularly.