Hyundai Ioniq vs Toyota HiAce

What's the difference?

Hyundai's Ioniq range is nothing if not a flex in the face of Toyota.

Sure, Toyota has a dominating position in the Australian market, with its well-received range of hybrid models, but what happens after hybrid? Hyundai takes on the blocky Prius formula with not only a directly competing hybrid model, but a plug-in and a fully electric version, too.

This expansive range is as though Hyundai is trying to demonstrate it's ready for any future, near or far, and guess what, Toyota? Anything you can do; the Korean juggernaut thinks it can do better.

These cars aren't really designed to sell so much as they are offerings for early adopters, but a few years after its launch, with a host of rivals set to take it on, and an entire sub-brand based on the Ioniq just around the corner, is Hyundai's top-spec Ioniq electric  worth a look? I took one for a week to find out.

Fact: almost one in every two mid-sized (2.5-3.5-tonne GVM) commercial vans sold in Australia is a Toyota HiAce. And if you take note of the diverse range of businesses that rely on this ubiquitous workhorse, as we did recently, you can appreciate its widespread appeal.

Apart from countless couriers and tradies, the HiAce is favoured by a vast range of businesses from locksmiths and pool maintenance specialists to window cleaners and mobile coffee baristas.

To ensure the HiAce maintains its broad business appeal, Toyota has recently released an upgraded range with enhanced active and passive safety features, improved instrumentation, electric power steering and other refinements. We recently spent a week at work with the latest offering to determine if its market dominance is justified.