Things I Hate About my Ioniq Electric

I previously wrote about the things I love about my Ioniq, but it is not all rainbows and unicorns. There are also plenty of things that I hate as well.

Wireless CarPlay Issues

This is the biggest thing I hate, by far. Sometimes for no apparent reason my phone won’t connect via Wireless CarPlay. I just get a generic error. I’d say this has happened at least six times, but less than 10 times. Every time I turn on the car, I hold my breath a little to see if the CarPlay will connect.

It usually does, but when it doesn’t work there is no reliable way to fix it.

Sometimes it is resolved by switching the iPhone’s WiFi off then back on, but not usually. Sometimes it just starts working the next time I use the car.

As I write this, I’ve actually had this problem occur again. On a recent Saturday trip, CarPlay would not connect. My wife tried fiddling with things while I was driving and even restarted my phone at one point, but nothing got CarPlay to connect.

On Sunday it still didn’t connect on a trip out or the trip back. At this point I had no idea when it would start working again so this was incredibly frustrating. But when I went out later to get a picture of the error message for this post, CarPlay started working. I have no idea what changed, why it failed and why it fixed itself. The uncertainty is what is the most maddening.

I did find a picture I took of the error message from February 2024. This error occurred about a week after I had the car!

This would not be so bad if there was wired CarPlay to use as a backup, but that is not an option (although I think Android Auto does work both wireless and wired — I have yet to test Android Auto, but I do have an Android phone so perhaps I will do so at some point).

When wireless CarPlay does not work, I’m stuck using lower-quality Bluetooth but worse is that I don’t have easy access to mapping and trip planning.

As I said above, this is easily by biggest issue with the Ioniq.

The fact that I love CarPlay so much is why I get so upset when it doesn’t work.

The Beeping Noise When in Reverse

The CarPlay issue is the thing I hate the most, but the beeping noise when I put the car in reverse comes in at second place because I have to hear that horrible, loud and obnoxious sound every day. when I back into the garage.

I realize it is due to some sort of regulation, but it sure seems unnecessary. At the very least the sound could be something a bit easier on the ears. I’m not backing up a dump truck here. My neighbors must hate me.

Split Rear Window

I love the hatchback, but due to the sloping, aerodynamic design, the rear glass is split into two sections with a spoiler in between. This greatly reduces rear visibility and the small bottom section is constantly covered in road grime in the winter. I also think the top section would have benefitted from a wiper.

Visibility out the back is not great.

But considering Hyundai did not even include a rear wiper on the first Ioniq 5 and only now just added one to the 2024 refresh, apparently they just don’t like them.

Shifter Buttons

I hate having buttons to shift between P, D, N and R. More than once I’ve pressed a button and it didn’t register, leading to confusion. And I still say it is the reason I broke my driver’s side mirror!

The shifter buttons at the top are less than ideal.

Creaks from the Back Hatch Area

I’ve yet to be able to pinpoint the source, but there are subtle creaking sounds that seem to come from the rear of the car somewhere. It can be annoying, but usually I’ve got the tunes loud enough that I don’t hear it, at least if CarPlay is working.

Doesn’t Remember Auto Hold Setting

The Ioniq won’t remember its Auto Hold setting. It’s a great feature, but I have to manually press it each time I start the car. Plus, the button is out of sight on the center console area and can be a little hard to reach easily.

Doesn’t Remember Drive Mode

The memory issues continue as the Ioniq always starts up in Normal drive mode even when I previously had Sport selected. The is not a big deal, as I don’t use Sport that often, but I’d like it to remember.

Piano Black Plastic is a Fingerprint Magnet

There is just too much shiny black plastic in the infotainment area and around the shifter. It may look nice when it’s all perfectly clean, but it quickly gets covered in fingerprints and looks terrible. This has been a problem with many cars in recent years, but lately it looks like manufacturers are moving away from this terrible design choice.

No Easy Way to Use the EV Battery to Power Equipment

Newer Hyundai Ioniq models (and the Kona) have a feature called V2L, vehicle to load, which lets you connect up to 1500 watt via an adapter to run off the car battery.

I’m being greedy wishing that an older Ioniq had this feature when even Teslas do not, but being able to use the big car battery to power the refrigerator in a power outage would be wonderful.

There are 12-volt outlets in the car, but they can only power 150 watts. I do have a small power inverter I keep in the car to use with those. I have read that a larger power inverter can be directly connected to the car battery to get higher loads, perhaps as much as 1200 watts, but I have not dared to test that.

No Frunk

It’s understandable that the Ioniq does not have a front trunk because it was designed as a hybrid, plug-in hybrid and EV. The two hybrid models have an engine up front and they didn’t bother to redesign the EV components enough to fit a frunk.

There is a company (in Europe) that sells a frunk that you can mount in place of the cover in the “engine” bay, but it’s small and at $200 I’m not sure I really care enough to order it.

Still, I Love my Ioniq!

For the most part, other than the CarPlay issue, these are all somewhat minor nits and are not really EV-specific. Plus, most of them have already been addressed on newer Hyundai EVs.

I still love my Ioniq, but what are some of your complaints?