The big test: everyday EVs
FORD MUSTANG MACH-E
£41,330 / £41,330 as tested
VOLKSWAGEN ID.3
£28,435 / £31,020 as tested
HYUNDAI IONIQ 5
£44,945 / £48,320 as tested
Franz Carl Müller-Lyer didn’t design Hyundais. He was a psychologist, and he died in 1916. His relevance here is the optical illusion he identified. A straight line with outward-pointing arrows at the ends appears shorter than one the same length but with inward-pointing arrows. The Ioniq 5 is a wheeled optical illusion.
It’s actually the same size as the Mach-E. Yet something about it makes it look hatchback-sized. Is it all the straight lines and arrowheads? Or the proportions, which closely match the Volkswagen ID.3? The VW and Hyundai look the same size when photographed singly. When parked side by side the VW is lost in the Hyundai’s outline.
The Ioniq is a cognitive illusion as well as an optical one. Hyundai mentioned it draws stylistic inspiration from the company’s original car, the Giugiaro-designed Pony of 1975. We assumed the Ioniq 5 would be that small. The Pony was mechanically based on the Morris Marina, a dreadful crapbox itself based on the Morris Minor. Fortunately outside our obsessive little
