Hyundai Ioniq 6 impresses Euro NCAP

HYUNDAI’S soon-to-be-launched Ioniq 6 electric sedan has come up trumps in the European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP), which awarded the sleek four-door ‘Best in Class’ in the ‘Large Family Car’ category.

Adding kudos to the award was the fact that last year was the independent vehicle assessment organisation’s busiest-ever year with 66 new passenger cars assessed.

“This latest Euro NCAP ‘Best in Class’ 2022 title for Ioniq 6 follows on from last year’s maximum five-star safety rating, and proves that it is one of the safest EVs on the European market,” said Hyundai Motor Europe vice president of marketing, product and PR Andreas-Christoph Hofmann.

“Hyundai is committed to providing all road users with the highest level of safety, while at the same time offering innovative mobility solutions to our customers. This latest accolade by Euro NCAP underscores our industry-leading position in the field of future mobility.”

Euro NCAP’s ‘Best in Class’ calculation is made via a weighted sum of the scores in each of the four areas of assessment: Adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road user protection and safety assist. 

Cars qualify for ‘Best in Class’ based only on their rating with standard safety equipment and additional ratings based on optional equipment are excluded.

According to a Euro NCAP statement, the Ioniq 6 achieved “exceptionally high results” for adult occupant protection with a score of 97 per cent, claiming first place in the category.

Further praise for the Ioniq 6 was achieved in the field of child occupant protection, where it scored 87 per cent for providing good protection to all critical body regions of both the six- and 10-year dummies in the frontal offset and side barrier tests to score maximum points in these parts of the assessment. 

The model also achieved a high score of 90 per cent for safety assist, being equipped as standard with Hyundai latest Smart Sense technology suite, which also enables the Ioniq 6 to qualify as a Level 2 autonomous vehicle.

Due in Australia soon, the Ioniq 6 is built on the same E-GMP dedicated EV platform as stablemate Ioniq 5 that has been available for a couple of years, but is longer, sleeker, and more aerodynamic. 

It shares the same battery and electric motor hardware as the 5, with rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive options and single or dual motors but can achieve better energy efficiency stats thanks to an ultra-low coefficient of drag of a mere 0.21Cd.

Hyundai claims the Ioniq 6 RWD will consume less than 14kWh/100km on the WLTP cycle, a number that puts it near the top of the list of modern EVs when it comes to efficiency and complements the car’s high level of safety.