This is My Favorite Electric Car *Right Now*

Okay, I'm sorry. I'm not coming out the

woods this time because there's way too

much snow. But I was just recently

watching or re-watching my original

Hyundai Ionic 5 review and this was like

2022 and I reviewed this back in the

time where there weren't that many

electric cars and so they all kind of

just got compared to each other cuz they

were all pretty similar. The Ionic 5 was

pretty nice. It was one of the budget

ones. But nowadays, 2026, and there's a

lot of EVs, and it's to the point where

now there's like specialty EVs, little

variations of each one. The Ionic 5N,

the fun performance one, and the Ionic 5

XRT, this one behind me, turns out,

well, in the Tundra that is New Jersey

right now, it's one of my favorite ones.

It's one of my favorite ones. So, this

5XRT is the off-road capable allterrain

version of the Ionic 5. It's got a lot

of what you already know and love about

the original Ionic 5, including a price

tag that's actually pretty similar. So,

I think that's a huge plus for it. But

it's a bit of a faceelift, a bit of an

aesthetic change and uh it's a little

bit more capable of uh this, which you

know, if you live in a climate like New

Jersey or Michigan or Minnesota or

whatever it is, then this could be

pretty sweet. So, the basics, it is

still a dual motor all-wheel drive EV.

It's got 320 horsepower and 446 pound-

feet of torque. So, it'll do 0 to 60 in

4.8 seconds. And it's got about a 260

mile range in perfect conditions. price

on their website, $46,000 roughly. And I

think that's one of the best things that

this specialty EV has going for it is

that it's not that different in price

from the regular one. If you go to a

dealer, you might see this on the lot

right next to a regular premium Ionic 5,

which is going to be within $2 or $3,000

in price of this one. Maybe you can

haggle a little bit and get it down. So,

for that price, what do you get? Well,

it starts at the front here with this

aesthetics package. this front bumper.

It's got this sort of a camo, a slight

texture on it, and it's the dark bumper

all the way across the whole front of

this facelifted car. By the way, it it's

going to have salt on it cuz I drive

these things and I've never been shy

about not cleaning them before a video.

So, this is what it looks like if you

really drive it. It's got these big

sturdy red recovery hooks at the front,

which I think look nice. It kind of

looks like a now a red on black accent

piece on the front, which is a nice

aesthetic. Camo black and red. Then at

the top, this gray paint color. The rest

of the Ionic 5 looks the way it normally

does, but then on the side, you've got

this off-road tire, this big meaty

sidewall, and an all-terrain wheel

design. So, now it's looking a little

bit more capable, slightly better

departure and approach angles. And

inside, a suspension that is 1 in lifted

or a little bit less than 1 in lifted.

And it has some special modes for

off-roading. So, I'll go ahead and get

inside since it's so cold and we can see

those all-terrain modes in action. Also,

you'll see a nice leather XRT on the

seat and it says XRT over here and the

door, too. Okay, I've had enough of

being outside. Let's talk inside. Now,

the rest of the inside of this car is

very similar to the rest of the regular

Ionic 5s. Meaning, you still got push to

start with your foot on the brake down

here. Still got this display right

behind the steering wheel. You still

have got this wireless Android Auto or

Apple CarPlay display. You've got this

mix of capacitive buttons, which I still

don't love, but they still will let you

do all of your HVAC controls and then

your radio and all that other stuff. You

still got this movable huge center

section, so you can slide it a bit

forward or a bit backward if you want to

make some more space up here or some

more space for your middle rear

passenger if you like him that much.

Still has a wireless charger right here

and still doesn't work the best, but

also heated steering wheel and heated

seats and a little bit of storage in

here. So, it's pretty good. This is

still very familiar. It's just, you

know, the little XRT on the seat and

stuff like that. I also have I have a

question for you guys. So, this is the

facelifted Ionic 5, which has an NACS

port. And uh I've been driving this

around. It obviously has a bit less

range in the winter, but I did go to a

charger and uh it was a Tesla

supercharger since it's NACS. I thought

it would work great and did not work

very well. Charging speeds never got

anywhere near 100 kilowatts. In fact,

they were in the 50s and 60s at their

absolute peak. And I always kind of

assumed that NACS would be this huge

improvement and obviously it is for

availability for a lot of these EVs and

just having reliable chargers, but they

haven't always been fast. I'm just

curious if other people have had that

experience. I know some Rivians have an

NACS port. I know Lucid Gravities, I

think, have an NACS port. So, I'm

curious if other EV owners with an NACS

port have had good medium or not good

experiences charging a Tesla

Superchargers. We took it off the

charger and moved over to an Electrify

America charger and plugged in with uh

an adapter and the thing was doing

faster charging speeds with the adapter

at Electrify America. I thought that was

weird. Um, and of course, the

prefaceelift cars were doing even faster

charging speeds with no adapter at

Electrify America. So, let me know in

the comments what your experiences have

been with non-Teslas

with NACS.

Anyway, the biggest weakness of this car

to me is that it still does not have a

ton of range. Uh 38% battery showing 73

mi of range. You're lucky to get 230 mi

of range, a full battery. Again, it's

winter, it's cold, this is worst case

scenario, but the people buying this car

are going to be driving it around in

conditions like this. Uh, and so it's

rated for 260, but yeah, on these

all-terrain tires, you're you're lucky

to get 230, 220. The biggest upside of

this car is it is fun. It is definitely

fun to drive, and I do think it is more

capable and more fun than the regular

Ionic 5. The 5N is going to be awesome

in great weather places, but for these

all-terrain tires and for places with

snow, places with sleet, places with

huge potholes like New Jersey, I'll say

it over and over again, like cars like

this actually tend to be like ideal. And

yeah, so driving around, living with it

for the past couple days, I've

definitely felt that, especially because

we've gotten almost a foot of snow in

the past week, and I think we're

expecting a couple more inches of snow

in the next couple days. This car was

actually kind of like the ideal snow

vehicle to live with, especially if you

don't have a super long commute. The

1-in higher ride height and the slightly

different tuned suspension were also

great to play with. Uh, you do have this

drive mode button down here on the

steering wheel. And when you hit it, you

have your normal, eco, normal, and

sport, and then custom iDrive. But

there's also a terrain mode button on

the XRT steering wheel. And when you hit

that, you swap over to the terrain

modes, which are snow, mud, and sand.

And so snow will let you spin those

tires a little bit and have a little

more freedom to obviously keep moving

around when you're not having the

maximum traction. That is sweet. A lot

of the same stuff happens on my Riven

when I put that in snow mode, which is

awesome. And then of course when you're

back on regular pavement, you can swap

it back over to

regular mode, normal mode as they call

it. But it's really not much more than

that. This doesn't have any sort of

special fancy adjustable air suspension.

This doesn't even have locking

differentials. This isn't a super

specialized off-roer in that sort of

way. It's just again, remember the the

RAV 4 GR Sport? remember that sort of an

aesthetics package with a couple small

adjustments to the driving. This is kind

of like that, too. I think the exterior

aesthetics are really sweet, to be

honest. I think I prefer it out of all

the Ionics, this is the best looking

Ionic to me, especially in the snow and

the slush that we have out here. And so,

if the aesthetic package speaks to you

and the slightly higher price isn't too

much for you, or if you can sweet talk a

dealer, uh, this could be the one to go

with. So, I'm curious. Again, my only

two questions really for you guys

watching this are one, what do you think

of these specialty EVs? Do they have a

home in more than just a few people's

garages? Again, I think this would be

ideal, not for road tripping, but for

people who live in cold climates like

this. But then my other question is,

what has your experience been charging

non-Tesla NACS electric vehicles at

Tesla Superchargers?

Let me know. doing a little data

collection. Either way, thanks for

watching. Catch you guys in the very

next one.