The Ioniq 5 has worked wonders for both Hyundai’s bottom line and its brand image, so you can see why the Korean automaker might not feel inclined to mess too much with a winning formula. But the EV market is even tougher now than it was two years ago, and no mainstream family car gets through a model cycle without some kind of visual tweaking, so Hyundai is getting ready to roll out a new and updated Ioniq 5. Don’t go expecting any dramatic changes, though. We can make out this prototype Ioniq 5’s front and rear LED lights through its disguise and they don’t appear any different to those fitted to the car you can buy today. What will change is the design of the lower sections of the front and rear bumpers. Though this test car camo stops us from seeing the exact details of the front bumper, we can tell that the contours of the lower intake are different, suggesting that the new front end will feature more body-color surfaces and fewer fussy details.

One obvious way to clean up the 5’s design would be to get rid of the numerous horizontal grille motifs visible on the front, side, and rear of the car. They might have been briefly interesting a couple of years ago and helped propagate the 1980s vibe Hyundai was trying to cultivate, but to our eyes, they just look cheap, busy, and unnecessary. Maybe you disagree, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they – and the big chunks of contrasting silver-colored trim – are absent when Hyundai pulls the disguise off.

 

As for when that will happen, we think it will be early next year since the current car was unveiled in February 2021, with U.S. sales likely to start late in 2024 for the 2025 model year. Since the hot 641 hp Ioniq 5 N was only just released this year and already looks very different from the regular EVs in the lineup it’s unlikely to receive any immediate changes. But we’d put money on Hyundai creating a new N-Line pseudo-performance trim level, something the brand offers on its ICE vehicles.

We’re not expecting any seismic changes under the skin, but we’re sure Hyundai will manage to squeeze a few more miles from a full charge. To refresh your memory, the 2023 Ioniq 5 is available with either a 58 kWh or a 77.4 kWh battery pack, in single motor RWD or dual motor AWD guises producing between 168 hp and 321 hp.