From Vancouver, B.C. east to Manning Park in the Cascades, the 220 km drive can be done in less than three hours, though realistically you should plan for four and be comfortable with five if you’re in an EV (electric vehicle). That’s because the smart choice is to charge up in Hope, B.C. Just in case.
Pixelated headlight, taillights.
The last third of this journey – Hope to Manning — is a steep climb into the spectacular Cascades on Highway 3. The road is in poor condition, ravaged by weather and overuse and pockmarked with haphazard efforts to rebuild, repair and upgrade one of B.C.’s most over-used and embarrassingly neglected highways. The weather is always unpredictable and between Hope and Manning Park Lodge – where a BC Hydro Level III electric pump stands guard in the parking lot — there isn’t a charging stand in sight.
So, I played is simple and smart, which is easy enough for an EV driver passing through Hope, where you’ll find pockets of charging stations, including a stand of Electrify Canada pumps that are rated up to 150 kw. Tesla has chargers there, too.
Hope, B.C., is at a fork in the road which offers drivers three big choices: the TransCanada (Hwy 1) and the Coquihalla (Hwy 5) will take you north then east, and the Crowsnest (Hwy 3) takes you northeast and onward. All three are uphill, twisty slogs for long stretches. None is in the best condition, ravaged by over-use, the effects of climate change, and under-investment. Chargers are few and far between — especially on the Coq, parts of which were completely destroyed by atmospheric rivers late last year and are only now coming back to life.
I was driving a slick, new 2022 Ioniq 5 tester to Manning for an extended test. Just to be safe, I chose to get juiced in Hope, B.C. – charged up at an Electrify Canada outlet wrapped in wire fencing.
Loads of space.
Let me pause and just say this: the Ioniq 5, for which there is a nearly year-long waiting list, is a burden and gift for someone like me. You see, legions want to chat about it. Hyundai, by my sampling, could unload boatloads of them if supply was available. It’s a gift in that you learn so much about what the world thinks of the Ioniq 5. It’s a burden in that, well, there is a lot of chatting. For instance, I learned that Brent, a pickup-driving construction worker from Edmonton, is jumping on the waiting list. Sold. Arjun from Chilliwack, too. He’s tired of filling up his Toyota SUV. And so on.
Yes, yes, this Hyundai Ioniq 5 looks pretty cool. The design resonates, in a A Back-to-the-Future kind of way. And there is bundle of other reasons to love this car, which has lately been winning awards all around the world.
My tester was the range-topper, with an as-you-see-it price of $63,000, minus any available subsidies – which in British Columbia come to $3,000 from the province and another $5,000 from the federal government. Those rebates just about offset the GST and PST. What the government giveth, it taketh.
FYI, you can get an Ioniq 5 for as little as $46,000 – not including rebates and taxes. The tester here is the top-line Preferred AWD model with the long-range battery pack.
The new rival to Tesla has a bunch of things going for it besides a (relatively) affordable price:
Again, the looks. This is a head-turner, all sharp angles and slick lighting. You’re looking at a concept car come to life. Hyundai calls the headlight and taillight arrays pixelated. The wheels are aerodynamic, as are the recessed door handles which pop out when you approach, tap the key fob or touch the handle. Compared to this, Tesla’s Model 3 look old, the Model S ancient.
It’s fast, too. The dual-motor version here, with all-wheel drive, is rated at 320 horsepower and 446 pound-feet of torque. In Sport mode, it flies away from a standing start. Silently. You’re looking at about five seconds to 100 km/hour. You can also toggle through Eco and Normal
No wiper.
by pushing a button on the steering wheel. Eco saves drivetrain energy, Normal is the sweet spot.
If you boot the Ioniq about, you’ll drain the battery like a binging drunk. But here’s the thing: Hyundai says the Ioniq can handle 350-kilowatt fast-charging. While super-boosted charging stations are rare, if you find one, well, the Ioniq 5 can be re-juiced from 10% to 80% in 18 minutes, says Hyundai. I have not tried this.
The 50kW kinda-fast charger near my home needed about 45 minutes to take the battery from 18% to 80%. Charging times will vary according to all sorts of variables, some of which even EV veterans have trouble explaining.
While you’re charging, you can while away the time in a very comfortable cabin, one that is absolutely huge for a compact hatchback. The battery back is under the floor and the compact EV motors take up little space – far less than a bulky gasoline powertrain with both an engine and a gearbox.
A looker.
What you get in this car is a flat floor, wide-open footwells, open space on the floor between the driver and front passenger and a generous centre console/armrest that slides backward. A glass roof brings light into the cabin. The seats themselves are exceptionally well padded. The rears are comfy, too, and the cargo space at the very back is adequate, though hardly generous.
Hyundai has gone with a dual-screen layout, one for the infotainment and such, the other for the instrument cluster. It’s a touchscreen but there are redundant controls for the navigation, media and even climate. The graphics are excellent. I was particularly taken by the EV information readouts.
The steering wheel is smallish and for me it partially obscured the graphic instrument cluster. But the Ioniq 5 has a head-up display that puts the important stuff onto the windshield, directly in the driver’s eyeline. The display, however, disappears when you put on polaroid sunglasses. Dumb. I lost all sight of readouts for speed and cruise control settings and such.
Yes, adults fit back there.
A rear wiper is also a glaring omission for a hatchback with a huge glass area in the rear. And while Hyundai boasts a range up to 480 km, steep hills, cold weather and the car’s array of electronics scrub the realistic range down to around 400 km between charges.
But 400 km is enough in B.C., where EV sales now account for about 13% of new vehicle purchases. The province has a decent if not ideal charging infrastructure in place. You still need to plan your trip in an EV of any sort. And the time it takes to charge is not insignificant.
Still, the energy cost savings are dramatic, the performance is superb, the comfort is stellar and the design is enticing. My anecdotal sampling of the masses suggests that even crew-cab 4×4 pickup owners want an EV in the household fleet.
Alas, the supply chain problems persist. If car companies can somehow overcome production and supply bottlenecks, the buyers are ready and waiting.
No one really knows when supply will match demand, however.
