Read on and tell me if my fears have merit, concerning a now a stunted small supply chain of Ioniq hybrid parts.
2 days ago I found out about the Ioniq hybrid. An cheaper alternative to the Prius? Surpassing it in some metrics? Many reviews said it was good, and i noticed the prices were lower . So a hybrid billed as a serious competitor to the vaunted Prius...at a low price, in Sept 2022 when hybrid costs have gone up 60%?? SOunds good to me!
I chose not to buys it - because i read an article saying Ioniq as of July 2022 will not make any more hybrids. Only EVs will be made from now on.
That stopped my brief love affair with Ioniq hybrids. If there are no more being made, then there will never be a "community" of Ioniq owners, only 60000 were sold in NA, so there will never be a critical mass of parts, making batteries, engines, etc body parts rare and therfore more expensive. Mechanics will charge more in labor as they take more time to take apart and put together an unfamiliar vehicle,
So...i went with a Prius.
Tell me, are my fears valid? is my assumption of future supply chain scarcity a good reason not to buy this car?
Am i a wise sage, or a scardy cat?
The main issues with the Ioniq would be those of quality, reliability, and longevity. These are qualities which current Hyundai/Kia products in North America are seriously lacking. I doubt that the positive reviews you read said anything about the Ioniq's reliability or likely lifespan. Although I don't much care for hybrids myself there's no denying that the Prius has established a decades-long good reputation.
You made a good choice buying Prius and your concerns about Ioniq are valid. I'm sure in the next couple of years, we will see the truth about Ioniq which won't be pretty.
Prius was the correct choice.
If you are looking to save a buck right now, Ioniq is your best choice.
If you are looking for a good track record, an enthusiast community, and relative knowledgable mechanics, Prius is it. Not to mention reliable and long lived. The basic underpinnings are essentially the same for the past 20 years. Which is a good thing. The big difference is the switch from Nickel based batteries to Lithium based batteries.
Full disclosure, I have a 2004 Prius since the beginning, now with 300K+ miles. And it still keeps on going.
I sometimes have a pyschological need to be unique, doing the lesser known,, cool new, up and coming thing, . When it comes to music taste, that's good . But i realized , thanks to your answers, when it comes to cars, you wanna find safety in numbers. Prius like you say has track record, and community. In a recession + inflation + a war in Europe, forget about rolling expensive dice
A relative of mine has the sister car of the Hyundai iONIQ.
It's same engine, same platform, same batteries but it's in a more attractive spacious SUV form.
In general where I live it was the 2nd/3rd best selling car for about 5 years, since it launched.
So first of all, efficiency is incredible - makes the Prius and Corolla hybrid look like gas guzzlers.
The steering, although the Hyundai-kia MDPS system is known to require some repairs, is light.
And it has one of the best autonomous driving systems out there.
BUT, it is not a Prius when it comes to reliability.
First of all it uses a GDi engine and it never lets it warm up - at 80k miles I am getting constant valve cluttering.
And in general, they optimized it for efficiency not longevity or comfort so if the engine is on - it's screaming.
Additionally, the DCT is of German origin (LuK) and they are beyond mediocre, jerky, unreliable, just meh.
As far as repairability, it's not that bad. There are a few things that only a Kia dealer can do but it's overall simple.
With hybrids the issue is not "a lot in labor to repair", the issue is "No one has a clue as to how to repair it!"
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/toyota-prius-a-2013-wouldnt-start/
https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/2012-prius-no-drive-no-reverse/
And I saw on this forum, and generally heard, about ~10 year old Prii not running anymore.
I have not seen it happen yet on a iONIQ/Niro but I guess it will, they're also overly complex.
But eh, that's what hybrids are 10-12 years is what they built them to last.
But some people do get much more,
forum member Kaizen has an '04 with over 300k miles, 275k of which are on the original battery.
That's about 16 years out of the original battery! It's more than average, usually it's 12 years.
But disclaimer, in hot climates, batteries degrade A LOT faster.
The only Hybrid I'd buy is the Corolla or C-HR Hybrid with the trusty 1.8L because of the larger battery.
As far as Prii, the Prime is an awesome car with that 8.8 kWh lithium-ion battery its close to being perfect.
Like this one with almost 350k miles looking to be in better shape than most cars with 35k miles:
So yeah I agree.
I'd also pass on the iONIQ for the Corolla Hybrid / C-HR Hybrid and Prius Prime due to their superior reliability.
With the only other car I'd consider as far as hybrids go being the new Niro, its the same powertrain but an incredibly nice new body.
EDIT: The iNOIQ is not dead, It was modernized and rebranded for the 2022 model year.
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It has received a smaller battery, and was moved from the "J" to the "K" platform and named "Avante".
For the US market, the Avante is called "Elantra Hybrid".
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It traded of practicality and efficiency for price and comfort, a questionable choice.
in hot climates, batteries degrade A LOT faster.
My coworker's Camry hybrid battery lasted 15 years.
On the other hand, in cold climates, battery performance and range is severely reduced as Canadians are learning. And good luck if you want to use heat.
Yep, not only do batteries degrade in hot climates, they also have reduced capacity in the cold.
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But reduced capacity with HEVs in cold climate is not too bad.
They're relying on the battery only a secondary source of energy, and with most HEVs having the battery inside of the cabin (or behind the rear passenger setbacks) - I think it shouldn't be too much of an issue.
After all, both the regular iNOIQ and regular Prius hybrids lack a usable EV mode so the only thing that gets impacted by reduced cold weather capacity is peak performance and efficiency.
when it comes to cars, you wanna find safety in numbers
The worst cars always sell like hot cakes.
PT Cruiser sold 1.35 million units,
The Kia Sportage just broke 1 million units sold this month,
Jeep sold Renegade over 600,000 units (a car you can't even fuel in the winter!)
Ford sold over 1.34 million Focuses with the famously bad PowerShift transmission.
even around 200,000 units for the Mitsubishi Mirage which is lots (FOR a tiny hatch in the US)
There's 0 safety in numbers,
when it comes to cars, people often have strong feelings and 0 technical knowledge.
Some of the BEST cars have really low sales numbers,
Like the Scion iM - a marvelous version of the Corolla that just did everything right sold under 20k units.
The (C-HR) "Corolla - High Rider", the perfect car in a super hot segment sold only 200,000 units.
The last generation of the Suzuki Grand Vitara sold only 80,000 units and it's a super good car.
And there are plenty of other examples for outstanding cars that just didn't sell well.
“There's 0 safety in numbers, when it comes to cars, people often have strong feelings and 0 technical knowledge. Some of the BEST cars have really low sales numbers.”
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Here in North America, Toyota RAV4 and Camry are in the Top 10 best-selling vehicles.
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Where I live I constantly see Toyotas and Honda vehicles over other brands: Toyota Camry, Corolla, Rav4, Tacoma, Honda Civic, Accord, CR-V . Here, folks understand that for reliability and less overall fuss (compared to the competition) that these vehicles are generally the way to go. So they voted with their money and brain versus feelings.
Here in North America, Toyota RAV4 and Camry are in the Top 10 best-selling vehicles.
Where I live I constantly see Toyotas and Honda vehicles over other brands:
Toyota Camry, Corolla, Rav4, Tacoma, Honda Civic, Accord, CR-V
Well. where I live, The Corolla and RAV4 are in the top 5 - the corolla holds the number 1 spot.
The only unreliable car in the top 10 cars sold where I live is the Tesla Model 3 taking the number 8 spot.
Where I live (a suburb of the most expensive city in the world with a >100% tax on cars)
About ~35% of cars are Corollas, C-HRs, and RAV4s and at least ~40% being European-spec HMG products.
(And as bad as it may sound, Euro-HMG is decent, 88.2% and 87.7% of Kia and Hyundai products sold here during the last 20 years (cars aged 0-20) are still on the road, second only to Toyota's 91.4% - considering the average car is only 7 years old averaging 12.5k miles)
I'm really unsure about that,
Consumers lack the information needed to make an educated decision regardless of where they live.
After all GM has the biggest marketshare out of all car makers on the US market,
And when we combine all of the non-luxury (mostly) garbage car makers in 2021 numbers on the US market (GM, Ford, Stellantis, Nissan, VW, North American HMG) we end up with 60.9% of the market!
If we add luxury junk (BMW Group, Daimler, Tesla) into the statistic we end up with about 70% of the market being dominated by junk.
So yeah, only the remaining 30% are decent depending on the model...