The retro-cool Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric car is a sell-out success.
Hyundai said today its first allocation of 240 Ioniq 5s are spoken for, with no more to be released for order until – at this stage – early 2022 once the company has some visibility on delivery.
The projected allocation for this calendar year falls short of the 400 units expected, but Hyundai’s plants have been losing output due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage.
“Once we have clear visibility of vehicle supply, we intend to release a second allocation of Ioniq 5s, with timing likely to be early 2022,” the company said today.
Rather than continuing to take orders, Hyundai will only release vehicles for order (the extra 160, eventually many more) once production has been scheduled, “to ensure reasonable delivery timeframes for our customers”.
“Customers who missed out will receive regular updates about the supply situation and timing for release of the next batch,” Hyundai says.
Expressions of interest taken online are well over 10,000 people, not that this represents actual demand.
The first 240 went quickly. Having already taken 70 deposits of $2000, the company today sold the remaining 170 in a tick over two hours. Such was the interest, Hyundai’s site was overwhelmed.
“Online ordering went live at 9:30am AEDT. The load on the website led to some technical issues and the early suspension of the ordering process,” the company acknowledged.
As detailed in greater depth here, Hyundai Australia is selling the Ioniq 5 direct to consumers, bypassing the step of wholesaling them into its franchise dealer network, due to such tight supply.
By selling the Ioniq 5 in a different way, Hyundai doesn’t have to share around a small number of cars to a network of dealers who all quite understandably want more of them. It also sets the new-car prices.
Even in limited volumes, the 240 Ioniqs that’ll seemingly be counted as sold this year will have an impact on Australia’s electric car sales.
Excluding Tesla, 3568 EVs have been counted as sold this year so far – up 191.3 per cent off a low base. Tesla doesn’t share local sales figures, though it outsells the rest combined, greatly inflating the total.
MORE: Polestar 2 v Tesla Model 3: $60,000 electric car specs compared
Background
The Ioniq 5 will be available in 160kW single-motor rear-wheel drive and 225kW dual-motor all-wheel drive variants, both with the same level of specification and a 72.6kWh lithium-ion battery. It’s build new from the ground-up.
It has 400V and 800V charging capability, plus a vehicle-to-load (V2L) function that allows you to provide up to 3.6kW of power to charge devices like electric bikes, scooters and even other electric vehicles using the supplied V2L adapter.
- Hyundai Ioniq 5 2WD: $71,900 before on-road costs
- Hyundai Ioniq 5 AWD: $75,900 before on-road costs
MORE: 2021 Hyundai Ioniq 5 revealed
MORE: 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 price and specs
MORE: Hyundai sticks with dealers, Ioniq 5’s direct-to-consumer model unique
