Undercuts rivals, but at what cost?

Hyundai has been very good at electric cars that make you forget what they cost. The IONIQ 5 charges faster than almost anything at twice the money, and the IONIQ 6 is one of the few EVs whose motorway range matches its brochure. The IONIQ 3 is the first one built to hit a number instead, and the number is £22,245.

That is what a 42 kWh Advance costs, and there is no grant behind it: the small battery car does not qualify, so £22,245 is simply what Hyundai is asking. Step up to the 61 kWh Advance, which does qualify, and £24,245 after the £1,500 grant buys you 308 miles — more than the cheapest IONIQ 5 manages on 63 kWh, for £16,450 less. A smaller, cheaper Hyundai that goes further than the big one is a good headline, and Hyundai has earned it.

So what has gone?

The charging, mostly. The IONIQ 5 runs at 800 volts and takes 260 kW, which is why it does 10 to 80% in 18 minutes. The IONIQ 3 is a 400 volt car that peaks at 110 kW and takes 30 minutes to do the same. On a school run that is invisible. On the way to Cornwall it is the difference between a coffee and a meal, twice.

Then there is the kit. Heated seats and a heated steering wheel are not standard on an IONIQ 3, and that is the sort of omission you notice every morning between November and March rather than once a year on a long trip. It is worth knowing what the competition does here, because it is not the same answer. A Kia EV2 has heated front seats and a heated steering wheel on every version, including the cheapest one, and so does a Kia EV3. Kia treats them as things a car has. Hyundai, on this car, treats them as things you pay for.

The screens tell a similar story. Hyundai describes the slim instrument display behind the wheel as "available", which is the sort of word that means it is not on every car, and the centre screen comes as either 12.9 or 14.6 inches depending on how much you spend. Wheels start at 16 inches. None of that is unusual at this price. It is only notable because Hyundai has spent five years teaching us not to expect it.

There is one bit of the range that deserves a harder look. The N Line Evo costs £30,445 and manages 265 miles against the 308 of the Advance sitting £6,200 below it. Bigger wheels and a sportier set-up cost range on every car, but £6,200 for 43 fewer miles is a lot to pay for a look.

What has not been cut is the software, which is the interesting part. The IONIQ 3 is the first European Hyundai with PLEOS Connect, built on Android Automotive, with an app market, over-the-air updates and Hyundai's own Gleo voice assistant. That is the sort of thing that normally arrives on the expensive car first and trickles down three years later. Here it arrives on the cheap one.

The car is built at Hyundai's İzmit plant in Türkiye, developed and tuned in Europe for European roads, and aimed squarely at people who were never going to spend £40,000 on an IONIQ 5. Judged against that brief rather than against its own siblings, the IONIQ 3 looks well worked out. Just check how often you actually charge away from home before you decide the 30 minutes does not matter.