Fun Electric Off-Roader Designed for the American Market
When the Ioniq 5 was first introduced in 2022, Hyundai blurred the traditional look of a sedan, crossover and hatchback. At the time the company said the Ioniq 5 is “redefining the electric mobility lifestyle for a new generation of eco-savvy customers.” Three years later Hyundai continues to redefine the Ioniq 5 with new iterations of its best-selling EV.
In early 2024 Hyundai introduced the performance-oriented, track-ready 2025 Ioniq 5 N and now it adds the off-road capable 2025 Ioniq 5 XRT. Mike Evanoff, senior manager product planning, said “The XRT will appeal to the off-road enthusiast buyer who didn’t have a lot of choices in the EV world.”
Hyundai brought the international media to Palm Springs to get seat time in the refreshed 2025 Ioniq 5 and then turned us loose in the desert in the Ioniq 5 XRT. Translating XRT into “extreme rugged terrain” Hyundai aims to answer the question: “How good can an EV be off-road?” After an afternoon of doing just that, our response is: “We had a blast!”
Silently Crushing Rocks and Sand
The 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT is only available with Hyundai’s HTRAC all-wheel drive with two motors producing 74 kW (front) + 165 kW (rear) for a total of 320 horsepower and 446 pound-feet of torque. The EPA rates the all-electric range at 259 miles.
The Ioniq 5 XRT is quick off the line with 0-60 times around five seconds. This is plenty fast to get up to freeway speeds and easily handle all daily driving needs while providing some fun at the same time.
However, our time in the XRT was spent driving much slower off-road on a desert course that offered very slow ruts, good-sized rocks, sandy straights with a washboard surface and tightly banked corners with deeper sand.
The XRT unibody design, which uses high-strength steel, felt solid. The front suspension of MacPherson struts and high-performance dampers, and the rear with a 5-link set-up and high-performance dampers, easily handled the varied terrain.
The XRT suspension, handling, torque and traction were put to the test. Pressing the Terrain Mode button on the bottom of the steering wheel opened a window in the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster where we scrolled through the Mud, Sand and Snow drive modes.
We set the i-Pedal to zero and experimented with each drive mode to get a feel for how they handled the loose, rocky and sandy path. Our favorite was Sand as it had less intervention and allowed the wheels to move around a bit more, slipping as we attacked the higher-speed sandy corners. The slipping allowed us to feel each wheel grabbing and then letting go based on which needed the most traction. This happens instantaneously and seamlessly partly due to the Hyundai designed and developed processors and chips. It was fun!
Unique Design: Exterior
The 2025 Ioniq 5 XRT has sides with crisp lines and an Origami-like crease, including a geometric triangle on the doors that begins at the A-pillar and culminates at the 45-degree angled C-pillar. The LED tail lights replicate the rectangular headlight design. Hyundai says the “parametric pixel lighting design is visually interesting and aerodynamically efficient.”
The distinctive rear end features a horizontal light band with a small square pattern and a dominant I-O-N-I-Q-5. The power hands-free lift gate carries two badges—the Hyundai stylized “Flying H” logo and a small “HTRAC,” which is Hyundai’s proprietary all-wheel drive system. So how do you know this is the most off-road capable Ioniq 5? Look very closely in the lower right corner of the lift gate—there is the most subtle-of-subtle embossed “XRT” in the trim.
The bold and unique 18-inch wheels, shod with 235/60R all-terrain tires, make a serious statement of strength. The XRT-only front and rear facia and fender brush guards have a digital-camo design pattern. The bright red recovery hooks, jutting from the all-black front facia, are there in case of an emergency.
Body color flush automatic pop-out door handles, power exterior mirrors with black caps and the privacy, solar and laminated acoustic glass completed the look.
The Ioniq 5 XRT has a longer wheelbase than the three-row Hyundai Palisade SUV (118.1-inch vs. 114.2) and a more aggressive stance than the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 5 N. It sits higher with seven inches of ground clearance vs. six and has an approach angle of 19.8º vs. 17.5º and a departure angle of 30º vs. 25.4º. What this means is there is a bit more possibility of not scraping the underside protection plates.
The 2022 Ioniq 5 XRT comes in one trim level and two XRT-only colors of Cosmic Blue Pearl and Ultimate Red Metallic.
Modern, Spacious Interior
The 2025 Ioniq 5 XRT, built on Hyundai’s dedicated EV-only platform, has a completely flat floor, providing spacious leg, shoulder and head room for up to five occupants. A center console is moveable and incorporates cup holders and charge ports. The flat floor allows the console to slide 5.5 inches, so in its most rearward position front occupants can slide across the seats to exit the vehicle from either side.
Sustainability is the interior theme where the seats, headliner, door panels and flooring are made from eco-friendly, sustainably-sourced materials, such as recycled plastic, plant-based or natural wool yarns. The XRT has H-Tex, which is an artificial leather, seating surfaces. The driver and passenger get 8-way power adjustable and heated seats with XRT debossing. The heated and tilt and telescoping 3-spoke steering wheel is leather-wrapped and has audio, telephone and cruise controls.
Wide second-row access led to the comfortable rear seats that offered ample head and leg room, partially due to the flat floor. The split 60:40 rear bench seat slides and reclines, producing 58.5 inches of cargo space when folded down. Without an engine up front, there is a front trunk/frunk for stashing smaller items.
The low slung dash has dual 12.3-inch horizontal color screens standard on all trim levels, one for the digital instruments and the other for the infotainment system. Sounds came from an 8-speaker Bose premium audio system with AM/FM/SiriusXM, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The Bluetooth connection is for up-to two devices, front and rear USB-C power and data ports and wireless phone charging. The Hyundai voice recognition worked well to control phone, radio, navigation and other vehicle functions.
Stopping
A very useful feature on the Ioniq 5 XRT is i-Pedal driving. Make sure to have the Hyundai dealer sales associate demonstrate how using and setting this regenerative braking technique will increase your electric efficiency, driving range and driving enjoyment.
Regenerative braking, which uses the motors, not the brakes, to slow the car, recharges the battery when slowing or coasting. It converts kinetic energy into electric energy, which is stored in the battery. The degree of regenerative braking can be controlled by steering wheel paddles.
The Ioniq 5 has standard ABS and power-assisted, ventilated front and rear solid discs. Handling and driving confidence was also aided by the standard electronic stability control, electronic brake-pressure distribution and brake assist.
Charging
The Ioniq 5 XRT has a 10.9 kW onboard charger that can charge at 400 volts, but can also go up to 800 volts at a 350 kW charger. The 84 kWh lithium-ion battery has pre-heating, a battery conditioning setting that will improve charging and performance as it will heat the battery to the optimal charging temperature. Look for the four squares on the center of the steering wheel that light-up depending on the state of charge.
The Ioinq 5 XRT can be trickle charged with a 120V wall plug, but expect replenish times to be long and slow. The best bet for owners will be to install a Level 2 240V home charger that will take the battery from 10-100% charge in 7.2 hours. When in a time crunch, you can go 10-80% in 20 minutes on a 350 kW DC Fast Charger.
To make it easier to charge, new Ioniq 5 XRT owners will receive a ChargePoint Level 2 home charger or the option of $400 charging credit at any of the ChargePoint public stations. The Ionig 5 XRT has a Tesla-designed North American Charging Standard (NACS) charge port, so it can use more than 17,000 charging points on the Tesla Supercharger network. It can also use an adapter for the Combined Charging System (CCS) system.
For even more convenience, the Ioniq 5 has Vehicle-to-Load (V2L), where power can flow out with the battery acting like a portable generator. It can power and charge e-bikes, camping and outdoor equipment, run your office while traveling, and even be an electricity source during a power outage.
Pricing
The 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT HTRAC comes in one trim level. The base price, including the $1,475 delivery charge, is $56,875.
Observations: 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT
Clean Fleet Report had the opportunity, in late 2024, to drive the all-new 2025 Ioniq 5 N at the world-famous Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. We came away with a huge smile on our face, indicating how great it was Hyundai thought to make a high-performance, track-ready electric car.
This obviously was not enough for Hyundai engineers and designers. Now they have introduced the 2025 Ioniq 5 XRT that not only is perfectly fine for everyday driving, but is rugged enough to get dirty.
Mike Evanoff told us: “Hyundai feels the Ioniq 5 XRT will be of interest to people that live in the non-smile states or the winter states, like the upper mid-West and Northeast, where they will like the raised ride height and traction. Other areas that are near the great outdoors, such as Denver, Seattle, Portland and Salt Lake City, are key markets. But so is Southern California, because for someone that wants to be recreational with the vehicle, with public charging, we aren’t too far from the country and the wilderness.”
Evanoff closed with the importance of the Ioniq 5 XRT to Hyundai by saying: “It is the flexibility,
where we want to give our customers options. The Ioniq 5 line-up gives a different flavor for whatever you want.”
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Story by John Faulkner. Photos by John Faulkner and Hyundai.
[See image gallery at cleanfleetreport.com]Disclosure
Clean Fleet Report is loaned free test vehicles from automakers to evaluate, typically for a week at a time. Our road tests are based on this one-week drive of a new vehicle. Because of this we don’t address issues such as long-term reliability or total cost of ownership. In addition, we are often invited to manufacturer events highlighting new vehicles or technology. As part of these events we may be offered free transportation, lodging or meals. We do our best to present our unvarnished evaluations of vehicles and news irrespective of these inducements.
Our focus is on vehicles that offer the best fuel economy in their class, which leads us to emphasize electric cars, plug-in hybrids, hybrids and other efficient powertrains. We also feature those efficient gas-powered vehicles that are among the top mpg vehicles in their class. In addition, we aim to offer reviews and news on advanced technology and the alternative fuel vehicle market. We welcome any feedback from vehicle owners and are dedicated to providing a forum for alternative viewpoints. Please let us know your views at publisher@cleanfleetreport.com.
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