Taking the Hyundai IONIQ 5 XRT Out to Play in the Dirt
April 27, 20263 hours
Kyle Field
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Hyundai invited CleanTechnica out to their factory near Savannah, Georgia, and while we were there, we had an opportunity to take their new Hyundai IONIQ 5 XRT out to play in the dirt.
Disclaimer: Hyundai paid for the author’s travel and accommodations to attend this event in Savannah, Georgia.
The Hyundai IONIQ 5 XRT is a soft roading variant of the IONIQ 5 and comes with one inch more ground clearance, all-terrain tires, and some additional styling flourishes to give it a more rugged appearance. All told, it is a slightly more capable off-road electric vehicle and we had a blast laying into it.
When we arrived, we were in just a dirt field with autocross style cones laid out to map out a squiggling S turn path through the field. The course allowed us to test the acceleration of the vehicle, the brakes under intense pressure, as well as the extra ground clearance and traction from the XRT’s lift package and all-terrain tires.
It was a blast and is well suited to this specific application. The IONIQ 5 XRT is great for somebody who wants to take their daily driver out onto fire roads on the weekend to support more remote hiking, biking, or similar adventures. It transforms the IONIQ 5 into something much more similar to a Subaru, especially with its all-wheel drive and custom off-road driving modes.
Because we were sloshing around in a mixture of slippery, dry grass and deep sand, we chose the Sand driving mode which lets the tires spin a bit more to maximize traction with the dusty substrate on the track. This ended up being a great selection for the powdery conditions and we had a blast pushing both our own limits as well as the limits of the vehicle.
Nobody got stuck; though, the ruts we were carving did result in one driver de-beading a tire as he popped over one of the more severe ruts in the track, slamming into a berm at speed.
The IONIQ 5 is obviously not going to be the best rally or off-road/autocross vehicle even with the mods that come with the XRT package, but it’s not hard to imagine it being even more capable with a bit more tweaking.
It’s exciting that Hyundai is offering an option like this with even more capability from the factory, and we would love to see an even more capable version of the IONIQ 5 XRT with even more capability. Maybe they’re saving that for a future production release of some of their recently released concepts that take the idea of electric off-roading to an entirely new level.
For more information about the Hyundai IONIQ 5 XRT, head over to the official website.
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