First drive: 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 6 prototype review

So far, things look promising, though. In the metal and without the camouflage, it’s a striking shape that has more personality than the very soap-bar-like Tesla. It’s not without the odd awkward angle or detail, but there are plenty of details to delight.

It’s slightly disappointing that it has a saloon boot, rather than a hatch like the BMW i4 and Polestar 2.

The designers told us that the hinges would have compromised the aerodynamics and the rear head room, and at least the lid opens fairly wide to reveal quite a large space.

The Ioniq 6 is generally pretty roomy inside, courtesy of not needing to fit an engine in, although there are some caveats. The rear leg room may rival that of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but the floor is rather high and the head room limited, so you need that leg room to slouch a bit.

Up front, you’re not immediately aware that there’s a thick battery pack underneath you. The driving position isn’t as low as, say a BMW 3 Series, but it also doesn’t feel perched or claustrophobic. Like in the Ioniq 5 and EV6, the steering wheel comes out at more of an angle than you would expect, but there’s plenty of adjustment to get comfortable.

Hyundai’s presentation talked about how it reduced the number of buttons in the cabin. That will strike fear into the heart of anyone who has been near a recent Volkswagen Group product, but the Ioniq 6 is actually pretty user-friendly.

Of course there’s a big touchscreen, in the centre of the dashboard but, as in other Hyundais, it works pretty well and is complemented by a row of shortcut buttons and a separate climate-control panel.

It’s just the door panels that have lost their usual window switches. They’ve gone to the centre console in another unexpected ’80s throwback.

Our test car still has plenty of prototype parts made from scratchy plastics that, if the Ioniq 5 is anything to go by, will be much-improved in the production car. At the same time, though, it demonstrates that an appealing design with a bit of colour does almost as much to lift the interior ambience as soft-touch materials. The Ioniq 6 is a bright, airy place to be.

As already mentioned, our drive was a short, mainly urban route, and the suspension settings will still be tweaked for European roads. As expected, though, the Ioniq 6 feels superficially similar to the Ioniq 5, with weighty steering that’s more intuitively geared than a Tesla’s ultra-fast rack.

And even without rear-wheel steering, this relatively large car (4855mm long and 1880mm wide with a 2950mm wheelbase) has an impressively small turning circle.

The ride has a bit more of an edge to it than the Ioniq 5’s, but that might change on the final car.