2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Is A Good Car Made Even Better

Sometimes change isn't always for the better. Apparently, the folks over at Hyundai know this, and that's why the Ioniq 5's facelift for 2025 is a handful of small, thoughtful updates to an already solid electric crossover, leaning heavily on the "evolution over revolution" mantra. It was the right choice to make. I mean, why mess with success, ya know?

Hyundai focused on fixing some of the gripes people had with the original Ioniq 5 — things like the lack of a rear wiper, a small-ish battery pack and the absence of wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. When you put these new additions together in an already great package, and add standard NACS charging support, you get a real winner of an electric vehicle that is aimed squarely at the big dogs in the segment like the Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach-E.

Full Disclosure: Hyundai flew me out to Palm Springs, California, put me up in a beautiful hotel and fed me copious amounts of food all so I could drive the 2025 Ioniq 5.

At first glance, you'll be a bit hard-pressed to tell what the differences between the 2024 and 2025 Ioniq 5 are, and that's sort of on purpose. Hyundai knew it had a real winner of a design on its hands when the car first went on sale for the 2022 model year. Since then sales have only grown, with the South Korean automaker moving over 44,000 Ioniq 5s in 2024, making it the fourth best-selling EV in the U.S. last year.

Don't be fooled into thinking that the 2025 Ioniq 5 isn't worth considering over previous model years. There's enough here to make it an even more compelling package than it already was. Hyundai upped the battery pack size and changed up the chemistry inside it to give the Ioniq 5 a bit more range. Standard Range cars go from a 58 kWh capacity to 63 kWh, and Long Range models go from 77.4 kWh to 84 kWh. Those improvements lead to range gains across the lineup. The AWD Limited is up by nine miles (now 269 miles, according to Hyundai) while the AWD SE and SEL are increased by 30 miles (now 290 miles). If you're all about as much range as possible, the rear-wheel-drive SE, SEL and Limited cars have gained 15 miles of range (now 318 miles). Even budget-conscious buyers of the SE Standard Range car see a solid bump of 25 miles (now 245 miles). As always, all Ioniq 5s run on an 800V architecture.

A big change for 2025 is the addition of a North American Charging System (NACS) port. Hyundai says the 2025 Ioniq 5 is the first non-Tesla to go on sale with one of these chargers. I should mention that Lucid also claims this achievement, so who really knows? The Standard Range car can DC Fast Charge from 10 to 80 percent in 24 minutes at a NACS V3 station at a 135 kW peak. It'll be faster at newer Supercharger stations once those are more readily available. Long Range cars will take about 30 minutes. These numbers will supposedly improve once more V4 stations come online. Charging times are a bit quicker at CCS charging stations, and Hyundai will give everyone who gets an Ioniq 5 a complimentary adapter. At those stations, charging from 10 to 80 percent will take 20 minutes at a peak of 250 kW, regardless of battery size. Hyundai says Long Range cars can add up to 178 miles of range at 350-kW CCS chargers in just 15 minutes. Not too shabby.

Power numbers remain the same across the board. Standard Range Ioniq 5s have a single 168 horsepower motor on the rear axle, while Long Range RWD cars have 225 horsepower and AWD models have 320 horsepower split between the front and rear motors. I was only able to sample the Limited AWD in my testing, and like before the power it provides isn't world-beating (especially compared to other EVs), but it's more than enough for the daily work you're going to be putting in with a car like the Ioniq 5. You've still got four levels of regenerative braking too, with the top "i-Pedal" mode being full one-pedal driving. That is the correct way to drive an EV, by the way.

Despite all of these changes underneath, the driving dynamics of the Ioniq 5 remain the same. The suspension setup is identical to the car it replaces, meaning it's a bit overdamped for aggressive driving. However, it makes for a very comfortable ride when you're just chilling out, which is what you should be doing in a car like this. Handling isn't exactly anything to write home about. I mean, why would it be? To be fair though, there is some decent communication coming from the steering wheel, but don't expect it to have a Lotus-like steering feel. It feels very stable at high speed, though, and that probably has a bit to do with its massive 118.1-inch wheelbase. That's nearly four inches longer than the Hyundai Palisade's wheelbase. The 2025 Ioniq 5 is not a sporty car, and that's more than OK. It isn't supposed to be. That's what the Ioniq 5 N is for.

To go along with the minor refresh to the outside, which brings in tweaked front and rear fascias, some new wheel designs, a couple of new color options and — most importantly — a rear wiper, the interior also sees some design and tech updates, plus a bunch of new hard buttons. The Ioniq 5 sticks with a pair of 12.3-inch screens, but Hyundai changed the guts of its infotainment system to make it run a bit quicker and smoother. That also means it now comes with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a Wi-Fi hotspot and a smattering of USB-C ports. Hyundai also added interactive pixel lights to the steering wheel (which now has three spokes) that change color depending on what you're doing with the car, updated the digital key and added a Bose sound system, which sounds pretty solid for this level of car. It also added a handful of new safety systems to make sure you don't crash your brand-new Ioniq 5 no matter how hard you try.

Button circle-jerkers will also be happy to learn that Hyundai added a bunch to the 2025 Ioniq 5. There are now hard buttons for your heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel and surround-view camera. Hell, interior designers even added a tuning knob to the 5's dashboard because y'all bitched and moaned so much. Good for you guys. Seriously.

Trim levels remain pretty much the same for 2025 as well. At the low end, you've got the SE Standard Range, which starts at $43,975 including destination. From there, you've got the SE Long Range at $48,025; adding AWD increases pushes that price up to $51,525. Then, you've got your SEL, which starts at $50,975. If you want four wheels providing power, it'll cost you $54,475. At the top of the lineup is the big dog Limited, which starts at $55,675. All-wheel-drive pushes that price to $59,575. Of course, the big addition for 2025 is the XRT off-road-focused Ioniq 5 XRT, that car which is AWD only, and it will set you back $56,875 (all prices include destination). A whole lot is going on in that car, more than can fit into an overall review, so if you want to learn more about the Ioniq 5 XRT, click here. As the updated Ioniq 5 is now built in the U.S., it should soon regain the full $7,500 tax credit, as long as that's still around.

Hyundai did not reinvent the wheel when it came to the 2025 Ioniq 5's refresh, but it really didn't need to. The Ioniq 5 has been a great car for years now, so it would almost certainly be foolish to burn all of that equity with a big, needless update. What the 2025 model gives its customers are incremental improvements that turn an already good car into something even better. Sure, it may not be terribly easy to spot the difference between a pre-refresh and post-refresh Ioniq 5, but it seriously doesn't matter. Why mess up a good thing?