EV Of The Year - Hyundai Ioniq 5

If you want to know why the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is our EV of the Year, just look at it. Is this not the coolest new design on the road?

- By Ezra Dyer

Just when you thought the two-box crossover shape was permanently consigned to amorphous wind-tunnel blobbiness, along comes this collection of slashes and rectangles, all rakish and defiant but somehow still scoring a relatively slippery 0.29 coefficient of drag. This is high design for the masses, right down to the exotic-looking matte-gray paint-a $1000 option. Yes, that's all. The Ioniq 5's pricing, which starts at $41,245, is the only thing about it that's resolutely normal.

This car is confidently weird. The driver's seat has a power leg rest? Okay! The center console slides back 5.5 inches, so you could climb into either front seat from either side, should that need arise. You can also drive the car forward or back using the key fob, proving Hyundai's commitment to squeezing into inadvisable parking spaces. The cruise control pays attention to how you drive, so it can try to emulate your style (alternately, it can be manually configured for angry Boston guy rushing to buy Powerball tickets). When you plug in, a disembodied voice booms charging started from somewhere beneath the car. You can turn that down, or off, but it's fun to startle people at public chargers with your assertive talking car.