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By the time you have circled the nation, touched both oceans, slipped through wildfire smoke in the Southwest, and hammered across train tracks in New Jersey, the road becomes something more than pavement.
The car becomes something more than transport.
This is the kind of long-haul test that cannot be faked. A Redditor named lightofhonor set out with his Hyundai Ioniq 6 last July, and 40 days and 14,000 miles later, he came back with not just memories, but something closer to a romance with the machine.
“Got the Ioniq 6 in March and took it for a spin around the country starting in July! Somehow stayed on schedule the entire trip, which is no small feat when traveling with kids.
Having an Ioniq 5 would have been nice for the trunk space, but the 6 held up like a champ even when we inadvertently went off-roading in West Virginia. Didn’t even need to use a Tesla supercharger either, though we did use one since it was next to our hotel instead of driving to the normal charger. Supercharger speeds are way slower than Electrify America, so we avoided them every trip.
The car has 20-inch tires, which also caused us to blow two tires simultaneously, going over train tracks in New Jersey. Will probably go with 17/18s when we replace them for the added range and to avoid issues like that. Averaged 3.6 miles/kw. Charge limited to 90%. Worst chargers in our experience were ChargePoint. Their chargers weren’t all that fast, and their connector seemed to be prone to issues. One we used would disconnect if we bumped the cable lol. We bought the Electrify America charging pass to save money, but used probably 10 different charging brands throughout the course of the trip.
The pilot gas station was a frequent hit for a couple of days, and we had good experiences there, though they were expensive. Full trip itinerary https://trips.furkot.com/ts/6Pwvrt Not exact since we skipped Grand Canyon due to the fires and added Bryce Canyon and Zion instead. We also drove more in NM, down to Gallup, and added more stops on the way (Like Wall Drug and Badlands National Park), which added to the mileage total. Photo is in Great Basin National Park near the end of the trip.”
Reddit users pressed for details on the charging network, a subject often painted as the weak link of EV life.
The driver explained that Electrify America and EVgo proved the most reliable, both hitting peaks of 235 to 240 kilowatts. ChargePoint was the weakest, with cables that disconnected if jostled, yet even those frustrations never prevented progress. The Ioniq 6 itself averaged 3.6 miles per kilowatt-hour and maintained highway speeds near 75 mph. Reliability was not theoretical. It was logged in real time across deserts, plains, and interstates.
The Platform Hyundai Ioniq 6 Uses
- The Ioniq 6 is a mid-size fastback sedan built on the E-GMP platform, measuring approximately 4,855 mm in length, 1,880 mm in width, 1,495 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 2,950 mm
- Available in rear-wheel-drive and dual-motor AWD formats, battery options include about 53 kWh or 77.4 kWh. Power outputs range from roughly 149 hp to 325 hp, depending on configuration
- The AWD variant achieves 0–60 mph in ~5.1 seconds.
- Hyundai offers multiple trims such as SE Standard-Range RWD, SE, SEL, Limited RWD (long-range), and Limited AWD, with different battery capacities, motor outputs, and price points, ranging from around $37,850 for base trims to $54,500 for top AWD versions in the U.S.
What stands out is not perfection, but resilience. When the Rivian Adventure Network refused to allow non-Rivian charging, the fallback was simple: top up slowly, move on, and let the journey continue.
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The Hyundai’s navigation could have managed everything on its own, but the family often adjusted its strategy to suit their schedule. That is road travel in its truest form, improvising within structure, trusting your vehicle to meet you halfway.
What Charging Strategy Is Best?
Other drivers chimed in with their own metrics. One Ioniq 6 owner reported 51.84 kilowatt-hours delivered in 18 minutes, averaging 170 kilowatts across the charge. Another reminded that smaller wheels would have prevented those twin blowouts in New Jersey. The original poster agreed, already planning to downsize for more efficiency and durability. Here was the community aspect of modern driving: not just one driver against the road, but a chorus of fellow travelers trading notes from the field.
And then came the moment of clarity. “It becomes painfully obvious which cars are not [good road trippers] by seeing which ones are still charging when you arrive and leave,” the driver wrote. That is the kind of wisdom that cannot be engineered in a laboratory.
It comes only after weeks of watching who is moving and who is waiting, of pulling out ahead while others linger behind the glow of a charging stall. The Ioniq 6 proved its merit not in brochures but in motion.
Hyundai Ioniq 6 Design Process
- The Ioniq 6 was designed under the leadership of Hyundai’s SangYup Lee, evolving from the “Prophecy” concept, and features the brand’s updated stylized‑H logo and parametric pixel lighting
- The body achieves an impressively low aerodynamic drag coefficient, Cd ≈ 0.21, though some sources state 0.22, thanks to streamlined form, underbody panels, active air flaps, and aero wheels
- Globally, about 27,934 units were sold in 2024. In Germany specifically, there have been around 8,051 new registrations, including 3,106 AWD units
Twelve national parks, five theme parks, three monuments, and countless towns along the way.
Over 200 hours of driving logged. And at the end, not just a successful trip but a changed perception. This Ioniq 6 was no longer a silent commuter pod. It had become a partner across 14,000 miles of American road. The great American road trip does not belong to gasoline alone. It belongs to any car that can meet the road with durability, efficiency, and soul.
Image Sources: Hyundai Media Center
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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Source: torquenews.com
