The Hyundai Ioniq 6 is one of the greatest electric cars on the market. We’re talking about a reasonably priced electric sedan with full-sized interior space, up to 342 miles of EPA range, an 800-volt architecture, and proper luxury car ride quality that’ll put many German machines to shame. Unfortunately, it’s also not a huge seller.
Last year, Hyundai sold 12,264 Ioniq 6 sedans in America, which sounds fine until you realize that’s a six percent decline over 2023 sales, in a year when Ioniq 5 electric crossover sales were up 31 percent to 44,400 units. Perhaps the streamliner looks of the Ioniq 6 are just a bit weird for American tastes, but Hyundai isn’t resting on its laurels.
For 2026, the Ioniq 6 sedan gets a thorough refresh, toning down some of its zanier elements and focusing on the core principles of looking like a modern interpretation of a 1930s streamliner. You just might need some time to adjust to its new face.
Up front, the big change is a new split headlight treatment that I’m still getting used too. See, I liked the down the road graphic of the old Ioniq 6 because it reminded me of a cat. The pointed headlights, the slight jowls of the air curtains, the slim trim piece over the grille flaps, it was all quite easy to anthropomorphize. In contrast, this new front end seems sleeker but less friendly, although it does work better in N-Line trim with the more aggressive front fascia.
Moving around back, surprise! No more whale tail. Instead, a simple ducktail finishes off the silhouette, while more black trim on the lower bumper balances out visual weighting. While I’ll miss the huge pixel-style third brake light, the result is a far cleaner look, especially with the simplification of the valence. Also, check out those new fan-blade five-spoke wheels. While not as complex as the old snowflake-like wheels, it’s still an interesting design and I’m curious as to what impact it has on range.
Moving inside the new Hyundai Ioniq 6, it seems its makers haven’t messed much with a good thing, instead simply improving it in subtle ways. The steering wheel grows a third spoke and seems to switch from glossy black plastic buttons to a satin finish that won’t attract swirl marks. The new-generation infotainment system, already employed in models like the Santa Fe, is also on deck, and that’s before we even move to the middle of the cabin.
The other big highlight of the interior is a redesigned center console that completely fixes the gripe of having to go into the infotainment to turn on the heated seats. Yep, the facelifted Ioniq 6 features actual buttons for heated and ventilated seats along with the heated steering wheel. Oh, and the console itself appears to be more space-efficient, finding room for two extra little cubbies that’ll accommodate small items.
Remember that N-Line trim I mentioned earlier? This is it, and you really get a sense of the new nose and whale tail delete from this angle. With the broadened plastic cladding, the result is a streamliner that looks even longer and lower than before, and the skirt package of the sporty Ioniq 6 N-Line really anchors it to the ground.
While Hyundai hasn’t revealed specs for the updated model, expect them to be similar to those on the current Ioniq 6, meaning huge range and properly fast charging. Also, expect North American models to come with a NACS port as part of Hyundai’s big format switch. Beyond that, Hyundai has confirmed that an Ioniq 6 N is coming in July, and if the brilliant Ioniq 5 N is an indicator, the result should be hugely enjoyable. Consider it something worth looking forward to.
Top graphic credit: Hyundai
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It’s fine… a decent refresh from the original one. I’d like it more if I didn’t really prefer the angular/boxy Ionic 5 hatch just for reasons of practicality (and looks). Today, I dragged home a barely-used stainless Whirlpool minifridge today (19″x19″x23″ high) and I’m sure it would have been just as easy in the Ionic 5. However, if I’d been driving a sleek Ionic 6? In the trunk? Even with the trunk lid left open?
I’m not sure at all.
When the Ionic 5 is going to be retired, I hope Hyundai will consider decontenting it a bit, and maybe only offering it w/a single modest battery/2WD combo so that Americans can finally have that $25,000. EV that Elon’s been promising everyone for most of the past decade.
I think it’s an improvement over the previous version. I just wish they made a PHEV version.
Aw, I liked the double whaletail. Other than that, I really like this. As for performance I expect it’ll see similar battery size gains to the refreshed IONIQ 5, meaning about 10-15% more range across the, er, range.
Oh, and it should be a liftback, like the Ioniq (just Ioniq) was (as well as the Prius, and Volt, and…)
Cowards won’t make a liftback if their life depended on it.