Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid the new MPG champion, beats Prius Two Eco

Faster, more fuel-efficient, and cheaper than Prius.

Fuel efficiency is possibly thanks to a combination of direct injection and smaller, 1.6 L engine.

It looks like Korea is becoming a leader in automotive industry in addition to electronics industry.

2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid becomes new fuel-economy champ with 58 MPG

 

It turns out there are two versions of Ioniq Hybrid -- Ioniq Hybrid and Ioniq Hybrid Blue -- similar to Prius and Prius Eco, respectively.

This is a good review below. Ioniq is matching Prius' 40% thermal efficiency and 0.24 drag coefficient. Weight is probably less thanks to advanced materials. Lots and lots of innovations in the engine technology -- remarkable achievement for Hyundai.

Move over, Prius Eco: Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid Blue is rated at 58 MPG

 

Some of the engine innovations in Ioniq that improve performance and fuel economy, such as high compression ratio (13.0:1), high cylinder-block coolant temperature (105 C), and direct injection, may bring some concerns on engine reliability.

However, Ioniq beats Prius in many areas in terms of innovation, performance, and fuel economy. Hyundai definitely deserves credit for what it has come up with.

The car also comes standard with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, important things Prius lacks. It also comes standard with some other luxury features that are missing in many or all trims of Prius.

Passenger volume is also 3 cu ft larger than in the Prius.

Ioniq comes with Michelin Energy Saver A/S, the most fuel-efficient tire according to tirerack.com.

TireRack tires with low rolling resistance

A disappointment: No temporary spare tire but the useless tire-mending kit.

 

Regarding transmission, newer Prius cars are in some sense transmission less. They don't have the CVT transmissions found in nonhybrid Toyotas or older Prius cars. All they have is a simple sun - planetary - ring gear system that acts as a power-split device, which splits the powers of the engine (connected to the planetary gears) and motor/generator 1 (connected to the sun gear) and transmits them (through the ring gear) to the wheels and motor/generator 2 (the latter two being directly connected by fixed gears), The effective gear ratio between the engine and the wheels is controlled by electronically varying the speed of motor/generator 1 connected to the sun gear in the sun - planetary - ring gear system. There are fewer wear-and-tear parts: a dry engine-torque limiter and various ball bearings but no wet or dry clutches, no brake bands, no CVT chains/belts, etc. Note that thanks to two motor/generators and the power-split system, Prius is a true hybrid, albeit the EV mode being limited.

Dual-clutch transmissions are subject to clutch wear and tear as in manual transmissions.

 

It turns out that the regular automatic transmissions also use the same sun - planetary - ring gear system. However, instead of being able to vary the speed of one of the gears (such as the sun gear), they completely stop it with brake bands. They also switch the engine side and wheels side between the two moving gears using wet clutches. This way, you get discrete gears, depending on which of the three they stop and which one is the engine side and which one is the wheels side. Using more than one system, they can obtain four or more discrete gears.

Transmission in the Prius is a lot simpler (only one system, no brake bands, no wet clutches) and you get variable gear ratio -- all thanks to the motor/generator 1 being able to continuously control the rotation speed of one of the gears (sun gear).

 

Ioniq has big shoes to fill.

Gen 4 Prius is a very well-reviewed car (albeit not so well-reviewed in previous generations). In addition Toyota tops in reliability among all car manufactures.

However, fuel efficiency, economical pricing, and ideal engine size (1.6 L) of Ioniq will make it a dream car for Europe, where gas and cars are heavily taxed. In many European countries, Prius is heavily taxed because of its 1.8 L engine size. In some European countries, 2017 Prius is priced at $53,000 (including tax) and higher, putting it beyond the reach of a middle-class family.