Hyundai IONIQ 6 53 kWh Prestige Review: The Sweet Spot for Singapore

What we like:

Ample power

Better ride with smaller rims

Great rear legroom

Overall feel-good factor

What we dislike:

Large turning radius make some U-turns inconvenient

Hyundai is building out its facilities in Southeast Asia in a big way. They have the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre in Singapore (HMGICS), a manufacturing plant in Indonesia and a recently announced plant in Thailand opening in 2026.

While HMGICS has the capability to produce up to 30,000 cars per annum, there is no intention to reach anywhere near that capacity for now. Built mainly as a testbed for new technologies and low volume manufacturing, it is essentially a space for inspiration and experimentation.

Nonetheless, the IONIQ 6 is the third car that’s churned out from HMGICS after the IONIQ 5 and its robotaxi counterpart, and therefore proudly wears the ‘made-in-Singapore’ label, although technically it is more of an assembly than a full production. Still, pedantics aside, it’s a stunning achievement for our small island to once again be manufacturing cars.

Just as well, then, that both the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 are one of the best BEVs around. The IONIQ 6 reviewed here has a smaller 53 kWh battery, but it’s sufficient for Singapore where i averaged around 14 kWh/100km, giving a range of about 380 km in the real world. Power is also quite adequate. Although it accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 9.4 seconds, the on-tap response makes it feel faster than the figures suggest. That it is rear wheel drive is a bonus too, for it adds to the already dynamic nature of the car.

In Sport, the steering feel firms up and seems to be more communicative than the AWD version we tested last year - could it be because there is no interference from a front electric motor? Throttle response is also sharpened and you could go reasonably quickly in a point-and-squirt fashion that is quite fun. The car rides better with smaller rims, which makes it an even better chauffeur-driven candidate with acres of rear legroom.

The Prestige variant is highly recommended, because it essentially provides you with almost all of the features of the top-spec Inspiration variant, sans a Bose sound system and augmented drive sounds. For $7k more than the base Exclusive variant, it is well worth it.

There was some localisation done for the made-in-Singapore car. One is its Bluelink app, which allows you to control various functions of the IONIQ 6 from your mobile phone, like cooling the car beforehand on a hot day, to sending map locations to your car. The other is the onboard navigation, which has local maps installed including POIs like speed cameras and school zones (much like ERP 2.0).

The IONIQ 6 is an incredible product, especially in Cat A Prestige guise - a true sweet spot for Singapore.

Photos by James Wong

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