This sleek all-electric Hyundai sedan has been recognised to also be rather safe in a crash.
The Hyundai IONIQ 6 has recently been awarded the Top Safety Pick+ (TSP+) designation from the United State’s Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). This all-electric sedan joins Honda’s Accord and Toyota’s Camry to scoop this safety gong for 2023, with the Palisade SUV sibling being the only other product from the South Korean automaker to be given this top safety honour this year.
“At Hyundai, ensuring customer safety is foundational to our brand and at the centre of what we do,” said Brian Latouf, Hyundai’s global chief safety officer regarding the IONIQ 6’s recent TSP+ rating. “We believe in providing customers with a safe experience while on their journey. Through our extensive development in safety engineering and technology integration, we are able to meet the stringent TSP+ testing requirements recently instituted by IIHS. We are extremely proud that the 2023 IONIQ 6 has achieved such a significant safety accolade for as doing so furthers Hyundai’s pursuit of industry leadership in IIHS awards.”
David Harkey, president, IIHS also stated, “It’s exciting to see the IONIQ 6, Hyundai’s newest electric vehicle, obtain the highest level of safety. Making sure safety continues to be a priority in alternatively powered vehicles is critical if we are going to achieve the vision of zero traffic fatalities.”
In order to qualify for the TSP+ rating in 2023, the IIHS stipulates for a vehicle to earn good ratings in the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, original moderate overlap front and updated side tests. At least an acceptable rating for its headlights must also be standard across all trims, while its front-crash prevention system that earns an advanced rating or above in both the daytime and nighttime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations must be available as well.
Looking at the Hyundai IONIQ 6’s results, the South Korean sedan achieved a ‘good’ overall rating in its crash tests, with only an ‘acceptable’ score given to structure and safety cage for the passenger-side during the small overlap frontal crash test as well as being only acceptable for driver pelvic injuries during an event of a side-swipe. This particular EV meanwhile was deemed ‘superior’ in terms both day and night frontal vehicle-to-pedestrian crash prevention, but only scored an ‘acceptable’ result for its LED projector headlights.
Aside from the IONIQ 6 and the Palisade that scored the highest safety accolade, the Hyundai Sonata did nevertheless also manage to score the slightly lower-ranked Top Safety Pick (TSP) award too in 2023. In order to qualify for the TSP rating, an “Acceptable” rating in the updated side test is sufficient, and vehicles need only to demonstrate “Advanced” or “Superior” performance only in the daytime pedestrian test.
Hyundai’s IONIQ 6 is currently available locally in four variants, with prices starting from RM 219,888 for the base-spec Lite RWD variant that features a 53.3 kWh battery capable of 429 km on a single full charge. This then goes up to RM 319,888 for the dual-motored MAX AWD trim, which boasts a WLTP-claimed range of 519 km as well as a century sprint time of just 5.1 seconds.
