Featured Hyundai IONIQ - Prius competitor?

Floor parking brake is the norm here on midsize cars.

 

I went with my brother recently and test drove the Hyundai Ioniq and Kia Niro crossover which uses the same engine/electric motor. The Hyundai salesman couldn't figure out how to get it into sport mode because there's no obvious button for it, and I later learned from watching Alex on Autos that you shift the lever left when it's on D to engage it.

The Ioniq for the most part reminded me of the Prius, weak acceleration, whiny engine though it at least wasn't a CVT drone noise. Great mpg if you don't floor it though. Visibility if I recall was kind of limited, as the window in the back was smaller than the rearview mirror, so you see much of the back of the Ioniq when looking out that way. It also comes with Apple Carplay/Android Auto compatibility, which is nice if you want to use Google maps or Apple maps on your center dash. I don't think the Prius even has this option yet.

Overall I'd consider it if you were cross-shopping it with a Prius. They offer a pretty hefty warranty for it, 8 yr/100k mile hybrid warranty, lifetime warranty on battery failure (but not degradation, but would still put some people at ease), and a 5 yr/60k bumper to bumper, which is the longest I've seen from any automaker.

The Kia Niro was surprisingly fun to drive. While you don't sit as high as you would in a truck or bigger SUV, it's still higher than most sedans. The visibility also seemed a lot better due to the crossover design allowing for bigger windows. The engine also whines if you floor it, and there's no AWD (all wheel drive) option, but 50 mpg in a crossover is pretty darn impressive, especially when you consider it's about the same price as a Prius too. Had this of came out a few years ago, I would have seriously considered over a Prius.

They didn't have the plug-in hybrid versions available in my state, but I don't live in California either, and I heard Hyundai and Kia were supply constrained on the battery because they didn't expect demand to be as high as it is for their plug-in hybrid offerings.

 

My impression from test driving all 3 variants of the Ioniq is that the non-plug hybrid is very competitive against the Prius. As far as the driving experience, it basically comes down to whether you prefer a smooth e-CVT or a herky-jerky shifting multi-speed automatic transmission (DCT). I personally prefer e-CVT but many folks used to conventional cars may prefer the DCT.

For the Plug-in hybrid, I would prefer the Prius Prime unless you need the middle back seat. The Ioniq Plug-in has no electric-only cabin heating so during colder drives you may be irritated that the gas engine has to start up just to provide warm air. Meanwhile, the Prime has a very efficient heat pump.

Toyota (weirdly) has no all-electric Prius so the Ioniq wins by default. It’s the king of ~120 mile range EVs because it has unusually fast DC charging and active battery cooling (missing in the LEAF and VW e-Golf) even though the cooling is just a fan blowing cabin air through the battery pack.

 

So the fourth generation Prius continues to have the parking brake on the floor? This was the set-up on the very car I drove, back in the 1960s, but almost everything since had the parking brake by the right hand until I got the Prius 3rdg generation. I found the hand parking brake indispensable when I drove a stick shift, because it would give me a way to keep the car from not slipping back too far when I was taking off from a red light when driving up a hill.

 

yes, gen 2, 3 and 4. maybe one, not sure. toyota likes foot brake. who is installing hand brake these days?

 

My 1998 Camry definitely had a hand brake, so I don't know when Toyota fell in love with a foot brake.

 

me neither, but our 2001 had the foot. maybe when they dropped the standard tranny?

 

I've never seen a foot operated park-brake before TOYOTA put it on the later TARAGO (PREVIA?) - and now the PRIUS. Crazy idea.

PRIUS is the same as a manual shift if you're facing downhill and want to reverse - the automatic "Hill-Hold" brake only works to prevent the car from rolling if going forwards, not the other way.

If you try to hold it with the footbrake, it argues with you:

A proper "handbrake" would solve the problem.

 

Sloppy or Careless reporting will get called out, as I am doing now to that.

Off the line, I'm almost always the leader of the pack. The electric-motor has substantial torque with zero noise or feel penalty. So, being generous with the pedal is very realistic. We also know for a fact that the Toyota system delivers more electric-power than Hyundai's.

Of course, how often do you actually need maximum EV power? I find it quite rare when merging onto the highway. So, that vague use of "weak" is misleading at best. You can always switch to HV mode for more power anyway.

Remember, the audience for Prime is quite different from that of Tesla.

 

I'm just thinking. With how big GM is, tgry still purchase batteries abroad? Funny. Well, maybe high corporate taxes though.



Dxta

 

Mercedes has used foot operated for decades, but as it is a luxury brand very few people seem concerned or findind it akward

 

Agreed. I got my first experience of the foot-operated parking brake in my C-Class.

 

Bob wrote that a long time ago. Volt batteries are now made in Michigan by LG Chem, the plant was subsidized by the federal government as was the manufacture of batteries in the US for the leaf and tesla. It took awhile for the plant to get going, and while they were having problems batteries were shipped from korea. That was bad pr for gm and lg at the time because of the subsidies with people sitting around the factory not producing batteries, but things got ironed out, and the plant expanded last year.
LG is adding production capacity at its battery factory for Chevy Volt, Bolt EV and Chrysler Pacifica | Electrek

Yep, the park button on the prius is awkward, the Parking brake is fairly standard. I've used both a hand and a foot parking brake, if you have a stick shift, the hand brake is better, but that is not the prius.

 

Picture a rainy night, park on a steep hill facing downwards. Come back to car 2 hrs later, covered in dew and someone has parked 300mm from the front of my PRIUS. Great, Hill-Holder/Hill-Start assist will hold it as I reverse back up the hill. NOPE - Hill Holder on PRIUS is only if you're on an upward sloping hill.

Oh, well, do what I'd do with my Manual, foot on brake while accelerating. NOPE. Accelerator did nothing - fortunately the brake didn't go on holiday too.



And a foot-handbrake is stupid, it keeps catching the ratchets if you move it in gently - and have to reverse the procedure - and can't be let off gently like a proper HANDBRAKE.

Had to time hitting the accelerator just at the moment my foot let the foot-parkbrake off. I'm glad I was driving - my wife would have not been impressed, or maybe not managed.

VW DSGs have the same problem - on a VW Blog I read (when I was considering buying one before I got PRIUS), "best solution is to avoid parking in downhill spots". One more reason I didn't get a GOLF Wagon - but then discover PRIUS is just as bad.

A Proper Handbrake would have solved the problem. I'll certainly be checking next time I buy a car.

 

Suggesting such a rare situation is cherry picking.

It could happen, but is so unlikely bringing it up as if it would isn't constructive. If you actually do choose to park in those conditions and someone really does decide to make it worse, what do you do? It's no different than the highly unlikely situation of getting parked in tight into a parallel parking spot. You walk over to the other car and start pointing at it. Should the owner be around, they'll come out wondering if there is something wrong with their car... then they can help. If not, you end up either waiting or giving it a try.

The beauty of the parking sensors is you can get remarkably close and still avoid contact. Give it a try sometime with a friend. You'll be surprised by the accuracy.

 

"A Proper Handbrake would have solved the problem. I'll certainly be checking next time I buy a car."

Whenever I rent a car these days, the car has an electronic parking brake. You'll miss your Prius brake!

 

The Volt has an EPB that releases on its own if you forget to release it. It works in reverse or forward.

 

6 years with the foot parking brake and the plock button. Aside from the very rare (no other postings on the site for any year Prius) plock malfunction that took some sorting to get fixed (and was not involving parking pointing downhill), not a single incident where such a system gave me any trouble. 7 years for wife's car with conventional auto trans park function and foot parking brake.

I came from a handbrake in the middle car but didn't take any trouble getting used to the newfangled type.

 

"Cherry Picking - It could happen, but is so unlikely bringing it up as if it would isn't constructive."

What Parking Sensors - TOYOTA Australia didn't think we needed them. When I asked them, they said basically - you get a camera. Which doesn't help at the front (nor much good in pouring rain).

It isn't "unlikely". My Mum is in an aged care facility which is on top of a hill - same thing happens there often - you either park facing downhill (which I try not to) or uphill - but usually you don't get much choice as the street is usually quite full of cars parked.

Anyone buying a PRIUS NEEDS to know the inadequacy of the footbrake, particularly if they lived in a hilly area.

You obviously don't live in a hilly area. It was the only park available or have a kilometre walk, in the rain, up and down hills. The park just came free as I drove past. I had plenty of room in front when I parked, just a big SUV couldn't fit in their parking spot properly and ended up in my marked space and too close to me.

Wait? - this was outside a huge hospital, at night - cars can be there all night if they're at the bedside of someone dying - I could have waited all night.

As I said - a proper Hand Brake would have worked fine, I just can't understand why they put the dumb foot-park brake in.

I've since practised with the stupid thing on a hill, and can manage to get out OK, but it's not easy or logical like a hand-brake. And, to be honest, I'm sure many drivers wouldn't manage it.

I had at first assumed that the Hill Holder would work, and by the time I realised it didn't, the gap between me and the car in front had halved, so I didn't have much leeway to play with some stupid gadgetry which wasn't designed with logic in mind.

 

My only experience with an electronic park brake was that it had Hill Hold Assist both in reverse and forwards.