Two different approaches to family electric transportation (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
Pros and cons: Hyundai Ioniq 5 vs. Toyota BZ4X (Photo: Keenan Cohen, Keenan Cohen)
Last week, we published right here the first comparative test for the newest entrant to the parade of Chinese brands - the Ora Funky Cat, which faced off against the Geely Geometric C. The prices of the relevant versions in terms of range of these cars are about NIS 170,000, an amount that up until a few years ago would have bought you A respectable family crossover or a large family.
Today this amount is enough for a very compact Chinese tram.
The two cars we are looking at this time already have a price tag of NIS 240-250 thousand.
A quarter of a million shekels for a medium crossover that is not a premium brand.
And that's fine, we're a small country surrounded by enemies that needs your taxes and electric cars are naturally expensive and to be honest?
Judging by the reaction of the audience - it turns out that he is voting with his feet and filling the showrooms with shoe prints.
Sealed, upright nose and "terrain" decorations in the Toyota (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
After all, when it comes to electric cars from major manufacturers, Toyota was there first.
In 1997, she released an electric version of the Rav 4 on the market in California, albeit in limited quantities and on a lease basis only, but she didn't plant, she didn't do it out of love for the trees but rather as an examination of the feasibility of entering the electric world, and in view of the law that was supposed to oblige car manufacturers to sell electric cars as a condition for marketing also others in California, and was canceled shortly after.
This was also the year that the first Prius was launched, and the decision in the end was to go the hybrid direction.
Toyota made a second attempt in 2012-2014 again in the United States and again with the Rav 4, only this time in cooperation with a promising small car manufacturer - one called Tesla, you may have heard of her.
So Toyota didn't ignore the electric world, but simply didn't see it as a mature enough market, until it realized that competitors and regulators in Europe and the US think differently. bZ4X is a first attempt to close this gap.
Hyundai, on the other hand, has been in the electric world for several years with significant momentum and a succession of electric models from Ionique EV, Kona EV, Ionique 5 and 6 and in the luxury division Genesis with GV70 and G80 converted to electricity and the electric GV60 and there is also the sister company Kia with the EV6.
The popular and appreciated Ioniq 5 is one of the main competitors that the new Toyota has to beat on the way to commercial success.
An oversized hatchback versus a crossover?
The dimensions are the same, this is mainly an optical illusion (photo: Keinan Cohen)
Design:
Both cars are special, both have a very clear statement of their differences already at the level of the exterior design.
From there, the lines diverge to that of Toyota, which demonstrated a show of courage and the use of a variety of aerodynamic elements for efficiency, such as the air deflectors in the front bumper and the rear spoiler, as well as design ones to make an impression, such as the black wheel arches and the black panel on the hood.
The Ionic 5 has an angular, chiseled appearance, the lines here are retro-eighties-futuristic.
Not everyone connects to this language, and in exterior design there is no decision this time.
But the bottom line is it makes the Hyundai look like a hatchback someone built extra large and the Toyota more "crossover".
The best-designed driver's environment we've seen from Toyota (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
Cabin:
The driver's environment in the Toyota bZ4X is perhaps the best designed driver's environment that Toyota has ever released.
Lots of panels and curves, height games, fabric trim across the dashboard.
In front of the driver is a small digital dashboard for the immediate information and in the center of the vehicle is a huge multimedia screen for the rest of the affairs.
A row of touch buttons for operating the climate control and further down from there on the sides of the gear selector a battery of switches for the auxiliary systems and below a semi-transparent compartment for the mobile phone.
Hyundai went for the layout of two large screens for the dashboard and the information system and for a very open and airy driver's environment.
There is a very good dose of physical controls in the form of buttons such as volume control and switching between media operation options.
Climate control is still in touch operation.
A good balance between looks and usability in Hyundai (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
Comparing the two, with all due respect to the cool performance of the passenger cabin of the Toyota bZ4X, while it has a high driving position and sitting "on" the vehicle, it falls short in the points where a passenger cabin should be gained - the quality of the materials is not as impressive as that of the Ionic 5, it lacks a glove compartment ( There is a lower compartment under the central compartment between the seats which is less convenient to use), the display of information in it is less good due to the small dashboard hidden by the steering wheel, the air conditioning vents are too low, its all-black color does not really add points here.
These are exactly the places where the Ionic 5 shines, the absence of the central console gives a feeling of spaciousness in the passenger cabin, and also a better objective space, we have already talked about the right amount of physical controls, but they are joined by excellent information accessibility on the dashboard.
The only criticism we had was that the steering wheel does not come out far enough to compose an ideal driving position.
The space is very good, the floor is relatively high and the dark color doesn't really make you happy (Photo: Kenan Cohen)
The back row of seats continues the same gap between the two.
It's not just the better wheelbase of the Ionique 5 over the Toyota bZ4X (3 meters compared to 2.85 meters).
The seat itself in Hyundai is longer and higher and allows support for the hips, it moves on a rail and allows to increase the legroom even more.
The location of the air conditioning vents in the door beams and not in the floor distributes air more effectively.
And it's not that the Toyota isn't spacious, it's very spacious in all directions, but the seat itself is less generous, the entry requires a higher leg swing and here, too, the dark colors don't improve the atmosphere.
In the Hyundai, the back seat moves on a rail, the space is amazing, the air conditioning outlets are excellent (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
The trunk:
on paper the Hyundai has a volume of 531 liters compared to only 452 liters in the Toyota.
But we already know the problem of the trunk in the Ionic 5 from previous encounters, perhaps the biggest weak point of this car.
The structure is narrower and shallower than the Toyota bZ4X and the 12V socket it has and even the double floor do not help here, mainly because there is no convenient storage solution for the partition.
The Ionique 5 at least compensates with a small front trunk.
The trunk of the bZ4X is better in the other aspects of volume and usability with easy access, width and especially height and bottom line it proves that numbers on the data sheet are far from telling the real story.
In the Toyota, the trunk is the most successful and useful of the two (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
Accessories:
Both cars have very long and impressive accessory lists.
Both include large screens, Apple and Android connectivity, wireless charging, rear air conditioning ports, a panoramic sunroof, heated front seats, lots of USB sockets and storage spaces and much more.
But from this point on, the Ioniq 5 continues with its foot on the gas while the Toyota bZ4X zeros down a bit.
This is how the Korean adds leather upholstery with memories and ventilation to the front seats, full control over the regeneration commands from behind the steering wheel, an electrically moving rear row of seats, a footrest for the passenger seat and much more.
By the way, both cars give up a wiper for the rear window, this is the price you pay when aerodynamic efficiency is the most important thing.
Yes, there are rear cameras, but after a rainy ride with a dirty camera and a blocked rear window - good luck.
Did you want an engine and rear wheel drive?
You will pay in the limited trunk (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
Safety:
here, too, the two offer a very nice and convincing battery of systems.
Both with 5 stars in the European crash test, automatic braking, pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, lane departure correction, warning of a vehicle in a "dead zone" (in Hyundai with active correction), warning of a passing vehicle when opening a door and an assistance system to prevent forgetting children.
The Ionic also has cross-traffic detection with automatic braking when reversing and displaying the image of the side of the car on the dashboard when the turn signal is activated: a successful idea and execution, but if there's something there that you didn't notice, maybe you shouldn't be driving, no camera will help.
Toyota also has traffic sign recognition, prevention of sudden acceleration in case of an object in front, assistance in emergency driving maneuvers and monitoring of the driver's gaze using a camera.
Front wheel drive in a Toyota (Photo: Kenan Cohen)
Performance:
both cars have a single electric motor with direct transmission but the powers are different.
The Ionic 5 has 217 horses and 35.7 kg and the Toyota has 207 hp and 27.2 kg. In the Hyundai the power goes to the rear wheels, in the Toyota the drive is front. In practice on the road both power units are excellent and there are almost no differences in performance probably due to a weight difference of 160 kg in favor of the bZ4X which weighs 1.905 tons compared to 2.065 tons in the Ionic.
Both produce a very good pace, even relatively quick thanks to the immediacy of the power delivery.
In the Ionic 5 in sport mode, the power supply is even more immediate and it comes right at the touch of the pedal.
The bZ4X is more linear in nature.
Another difference between the two is in the regeneration system - in the Ionic you can choose between three different levels and another mode of driving with one pedal, in the Toyota only a choice of with or without, when even when the system is activated it does not produce a powerful acceleration that really allows driving with one pedal.
The rear engine makes room in the Ionic 5 for a small front compartment (photo: Kenan Cohen)
Power consumption, range and charging:
Throughout the test and consistently it was the bZ4X that determined better power consumption.
Whether after the very aggressive driving episode, after the administrative episode and also at the end of the test - in every test of the electricity consumption - the Toyota led.
In the summary of the consumption, it stood at 16.9 kWh per 100 km in Japan, and in the reader the situation was less bright - 18.9 kWh per 100 km.
The meaning in terms of ranges is that under the test conditions the Ionic 5 will achieve 384 km and the Toyota 422 km.
So the preferred electricity consumption was even on a slightly smaller battery in the Toyota (71.4 kWh compared to 72.6 in the Ionic - gross data). In terms of charging, technically the Ionic 5 can receive electric charging with a power of 350 kW, in practice even the ultra-fast stations in Israel do not provide this power .
Superior ride comfort and very enjoyable road behavior in the Ionic 5 (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
Comfort and road behavior:
in terms of comfort, the Ionic 5 had the upper hand in the vast majority of types of bumps, the bZ4X was more comfortable only in the case when we went over a series of small bumps.
But here it is possible that the fault lies in the unhealthy size of the tires on the Ionic, which wears a 20-inch rim with a section of 45, compared to the Toyota with an 18-inch rim with a section of 60. In any case, in the Toyota, the cabin is noisier in all driving conditions.
In terms of road behavior, both offer a very high level of grip and an excellent safety envelope even in cases where a steering correction is required that destabilizes the grip in the middle of the road.
The bZ4X is very surprising, despite the high body it is a controlled vehicle, with modest roll angles and very high dynamic ability.
Its steering wheel is sharper and faster than the Ionic 5 and the brake feel is more natural due to the same reduced regeneration.
On the other hand, the involved driver will find much more joy in life in the Hyundai, whose slightly softer dampers, basic calibration and rear-wheel drive allow much more room for amusements that begin with weight transfer when entering the front and a small rear slip when exiting it.
Lots of grip and excellent dynamic capabilities here as well (photo: Keinan Cohen)
The bottom line
Like the different approaches of these manufacturers to the electrical world, so are their two mainstream products in the showrooms.
Toyota has put together a very good product as a debut electric vehicle in a large scale production.
There is a certain audience that will wink at the relative conservatism of this vehicle and its symbol, its power consumption is excellent and its range is better, and it also has a price advantage of NIS 9,000 compared to the Ionic.
But when breaking down the cars into their to-do list and performance review, the Ioniq 5 shows superior capabilities in most areas and also a five-year warranty (3 on the Toyota).
Hyundai came to the electric field more hungry for victory and with a daring and different approach and in this case the daring wins.
Two excellent trams, one a little more (Photo: Keinan Cohen)
On the technical side
On the technical side: Hyundai Ioniq 5 vs. Toyota BZ4X (Photo: Keenan Cohen, Keenan Cohen)
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Toyota
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