People Really Want Hyundai's Cool, Affordable Ioniq EVs

Despite some of the things you may read online, demand for electric cars both in the U.S. and globally is at an all-time high, and sales are increasing exponentially. More than one million EVs were sold here in 2023, and the price premium versus gas cars is lessening. While many new EVs are big hulking trucks and SUVs, what consumers are really hungry for are affordable, interesting cars and crossovers, and Hyundai is reaping the benefits of that desire — sales of its electric vehicles in March were up by 100 percent compared to last year, and Hyundai’s Q1 total increased by 62 percent year-over-year.

The Ioniq 5 crossover had its fourth-best month of sales with 3,361 units sold in March, 58 percent up from last March and an increase of 68 percent compared to February. Year-to-date so far Hyundai has sold 6,822 Ioniq 5s in 2024, an 18 percent increase over Q1 2023.

For the last few weeks of the quarter Hyundai was running some seriously good lease deals on the Ioniq 6, which seem to have paid off in spades. (I personally know at least four people that went out and leased one.) Hyundai sold 1,984 Ioniq 6 sedans in March, its second-best sales month yet and double the amount sold in February. Compared to last March that’s an increase of 794 percent, and looking at last year’s YTD number Ioniq 6 sales are up a whopping 1,542 percent, as March 2023 was the first month of sale. In total 3,646 Ioniq 6s were been sold in Q1 2024.