MG Im6 vs Hyundai Elexio

What's the difference?

A super solid first outing from the IM brand. Don't let the pricing fool you, there is still bang for buck on offer in the IM6 Performance, even if it at times feels a bit too digital for my tastes.

The Elexio doesn't really push any boundaries in terms of its exterior design, its powertrain, or its battery. It doesn't drive itself. It doesn't look like a spaceship. And apart from some interior quirks, it's all pretty familiar in the way it goes about its business.

And I think maybe that's the point. Maybe that's what people are really looking for. Because Hyundai says this will be its best-selling EV in the country. And on our short test, we can't find too many reasons to disagree.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with accommodation and meals provided.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

I feel almost mean saying this, because there will be plenty of people who like the way the IM6 looks, and I don’t want to rain on their parade. But… I’m not one of them.

It reminds me a bit of the pre-facelift Tesla Model Y, in that it’s largely feature-less and a bit blobby, and there’s not a sharp angle anywhere to be found on the thing. Premium to me means powerful and assured — picture just about any Audi — whereas I just find this a bit bland and soft.

Anyway, I do like the big alloys, the insulated glass roof and the light treatment front and rear.

And I like the cabin. The seats aren’t leather, but they’re super thick and comfortable, and there is a genuinely premium air in the cabin, helped by the acreage of screens and the quality elements, like the little door panels.

The doors unlatch electrically, matching the pop-out door handles outside, but they can be a bit fidgety. Someone from MG told me how they worked (you kind of cover the handle and let the door come to you) but I watched everyone else who tried to open them struggle. If you're at the point where you have to explain how a door handle works, you might have over-egged the pudding.

The second screen below the main one acts a bit like a mobile phone. You can alter your home screen widgets and access the main menu, even as Apple CarPlay is synched at the top. You’ll get used to it, I’m sure, but I found it to be a bit fidgety.

Actually it reminds me a little bit of the Lexus trackpad, or whatever that hateful system was called, where you controlled the main screen via a little mousepad thing, though happily it’s nowhere near as annoying as that was.

I don't want to sound boring, but the thing I really like about the Elexio exterior package is there's nothing too challenging about it. Some of the Hyundai Ioniq cars can be a bit more polarising (and, in the case of the Ioniq 6, a lot more polarising) but there's none of that going on here.

It feels very clean, fairly timeless and like it's going to age pretty well. In short, it looks like a familiar family SUV with only really the full-width light bar, the cubed headlights and a bit of an architectural flourish at the rear three-quarter – which actually reminds me a bit of the Kia EV5 – giving it a more modern edge.

The wheels are 20 inches, there are only a handful of fairly predictable colours and it all just feels really familiar. But, as I mentioned, things do get a bit more out-there in the cabin.

Let's start with the good. I really like the fit and finish. It all feels very high quality and the materials used are lovely, including the velvet-like fabric in the door panels. I also like the square-edged steering wheel.

But the not so good? Now, the central screen looks great, but it controls everything – and I do mean everything. Apart from the steering-wheel controls, I couldn't locate a single physical button in the cabin.

The IM6 measures 4904mm long, 1988mm wide and 1669mm tall, and it rides on a 2950mm wheelbase, with IM describing it as a "mid-large SUV", though I expect it will be classed as a medium SUV Australia.

That said, ICE and EV mid-size electric SUVs are not cut from the same cloth, with the latter making use of a flat floor to maximise space. And so it is with the IM6, where backseat room is pretty damn impressive. I’m 175cm, and I had no problem at all with legroom or headroom, plus the same plush seats from up there are in the back, too.

There are also air vents but no temperature controls, and while there are USB ports, there is no regular household-style plug in the cabin. 

The glass in the windows is laminated, while the roof is double glazed, which MG tells me is Australian summer-proof, but I guess we'll know for sure in a couple of months.

There’s no shortage of cargo room either. There’s a 32-litre frunk up front, and there’s 646 litres in the boot with the rear seats in place. They’re 60/40 split, and if you drop them, luggage space grows to 1621 litres.

The towing capacity is a braked 1500kg, too, but I don’t expect to see many of these towing a camper trailer around.

At just over 4.6m long, just under 1.9m wide, and just under 1.7m tall, the Elexio fits snuggly between the smaller Kona Electric and Bigger Ioniq 5 among Hyundai's electric family. In family vehicle terms, it's marginally shorter than the brand's petrol and hybrid-powered Tucson.

But owing to the magic of EVs and their flat floors, the Elexio feels massively spacious in the backseat. I'm 175cm, and had no trouble getting comfortable behind my own driving position, with plenty of leg and headroom. 

Tech is pretty strong, too. There are twin wireless charging pads up front, a total five USB-C ports, and a household style plug (which car companies call Vehicle to Load) located in the boot.

There's storage in the doors and centre console, including a storage drawer, and cupholders up front and in the pulldown divider that deploys over the middle seat in the back.

But the weirdest thing is the driver screen, which is the only straight-ahead access the driver has to things like speed or navigation directions. It's a very cool 3D-effect display, but it utterly disappears if you're wearing polarised sunglasses. 

That's actually pretty common with all head-up displays, but they usually are projected above a traditional driver's binnacle. In the Elexio, it's the disappearing screen or nothing.

To be fair, the central screen also displays speed and crucial information, but I hate having to turn my head to look at it. It's my least-favourite thing about Teslas, and if you're wearing polarised sunglasses, the Elexio ends up feeling a lot like that.

I do love that there is an actual control to select Drive, Reverse or Park, and I adore the addition of a physical stop/start button, too.

There's also an auto-opening boot which reveals a 506-litre space with the rear seats in place, and 1540 litres with the 60/40 split rear seats folded flat. Keep in mind there's no spare tyre taking up space, though. You'll be leaning on the repair kit should you get a flat.

The Elexio arrives with just the one grade for now, the Elite, and the pricing is a bit weird. It lists at $61,990, but is actually being offered for significantly less than that at launch, with a special $59,990 drive-away deal in place until around the end of March.

There is a cheaper Elexio grade coming sometime in quarter two this year, and it will be $58,990. But I reckon you can expect a sharp drive-away deal there, too, at least at launch.

How does that stack up? I think we have to go on permanent pricing, rather than any special offers, and that puts the Elexio above its main rivals in the BYD Sealion 7 ($54,990 for the Premium), the Tesla Model Y ($58,900 for the Premium Rear-Wheel Drive) and the Xpeng G6 ($54,800 for the Standard Range). Though the cheaper Elexio variant will help to narrow that gap.

There are significantly cheaper electric SUVs that fall into the mid-size category, too. Like the Geely EX5 and Leapmotor C10, both of which are less than $50k on the road.

Anyway, for now the Elite arrives with 20-inch alloys, cube-style LED projector lights, an auto-opening boot and Hyundai’s Digital Key, which allows you and up to 14 other people to use their phone as the key.

Inside, there’s leather seating that’s powered for driver and passenger and heated and ventilated up front. There’s also dual-zone climate, twin wireless charging pads and a household-style power point to power your devices.

Where it gets really interesting, though, is with its cabin tech, which is seriously bleeding edge. The entire dash, from in front of the passenger to pretty much the edge of the steering wheel, is dominated by a 27-inch screen that actually gives the passenger more real estate than the driver.

It's impressive stuff, with high-res games for the passenger to play (including the super-sharp Space Invaders), but there's also wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, twin wireless charging pads, and a relatively small head-up display (only located within the binnacle) for the driver.

This is the real party trick of the IM6, because there’s a nuclear power plant under the metal somewhere. All up, the twin-motor setup produces a total 578kW and 802Nm, though I suspect you’re never accessing all the grunt all at once. Still, 100km/h zips by in 3.4 seconds, and the top speed is 239km/h. For the record, that’s exactly as fast the Ferrari Roma Spider I recently handed back, so yeah, it’s properly supercar quick.

There’s just the one powertrain on offer here — with a front-mounted electric motor, so front-wheel drive, that produces 160kW and 310Nm. That makes the Elexio feel spritely enough, but it’s no rocket ship.

Also on board is a 100kWh Nickel-Cobalt-Magnesium battery that produces a WLTP driving range of 505kms. Pretty good.

Charging is strong, too. The high-tech platform allows for 396kW DC fast charging, which is faster than what is currently offered in Australia. The claim is 30-80 per cent charged in 15 minutes. There’s also an external vehicle-to-load (V2L) port.

Delivering the driving power is an 88.1kWh LFP battery, which Hyundai says equates to a WLTP driving range of 546kms.

The Elexio’s E-GMP platform is a 400-volt architecture, which does limit DC fast charging to around 120kW – the Ioniq 5, for example, will charge in excess of 230kW. 

Hyundai says you’ll go from 10 to 80 per cent in around 38 minutes plugged into our fastest chargers. AC home charging is capped at 10kW.

First things first, don't get too distracted by the word "performance" here. The IM6 doesn't act like a performance car, it feels bit too plush, and bit too digital, for that.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Performance cars are often loud, raucous and uncomfortable, and the IM6 is none of those things. Instead, those mountains of power and torque make silky, silent progress absolutely effortless, which feels pretty premium to me.

MG makes a big deal of how much work went into insulating the cabin from noise – with active noise cancellation joined by double-paned insulated glass – and it is a properly calming and quiet space.

Also strong is the suspension, with the adaptive air setup soaking up most bumps and bruises, but I found it can clang over really solid bumps, sounding like it's bouncing off a stopper. The steering is solid, too, with a nice weight, if not overly talkative in the feedback department, while the rear-wheel steering helps eat into the turning circle for tight three-point turns.

The downside, though, is that it all feels a little too digital, and like there's been a little too much overthinking gone into it. Having to push a button to see behind you in a hurry is bonkers (see my explanation in the Safety section below), and the secondary screen is more annoying than intuitive. And there were several bings or bongs I couldn't even identify. All of which interrupts the otherwise calming nature of the drive experience.

Ok, let's skip to the good part quickly. I really like the way the Elexio drives. Honestly, Hyundai (and, to be fair, Kia, Porsche, Polestar, Tesla, some German brands and Leapmotor with the new B10, amongst others I'm surely forgetting) are restoring my faith in how an EV can feel from behind the wheel.

It turns out they don't have to feel soft and saggy and come with a light sense of seasickness as standard. They can be engaging, connect you to the car and to the road below, and attack corners with some athleticism, too. 

And so it is with the Elexio, which – to be fair – has a spec sheet that reads a bit like a bedtime story, such is the lack of excitement in the numbers. A two-tonne-plus, front-wheel-drive family SUV that produces less power than a Toyota Camry doesn't exactly quicken the pulse.

And it's true that the flat-footed acceleration on offer won't knock your cap off (though it feels perfectly perky enough to get you up and moving). But the numbers don't tell the whole story here.

A sports car this ain't, but its driving nature perfectly suits the ethos of the car. The ride can feel a little harsh at times, but irons out most road imperfections to the point that you notice them, but they're not uncomfortable.

The steering is direct without being overly aggressive –though I prefer the sportiest setting with the heavier feel – and the body roll is minimal, too.

In fact, you can push the Elexio harder than you might think along twister roads, with plenty of confidence-inspiring stability and without too much complaint from the tyres. Because there's not a huge amount of power underfoot, and this is going to sound absolutely crazy, but it gave me (much-heavier) Mazda MX-5 vibes, in the sense that you can really feel like you're driving it without feeling like you're going to get yourself in too much trouble.

There’s a long list of safety stuff aboard the Elexio, including nine airbags and just about every active safety system you can imagine.

They seem better tuned than some of Hyundai's competitors too, without being too overzealous. That said, overspeed warnings remain an auto industry scourge.

Particularly clever is a system Hyundai calls 'Forward Collision-avoidance Assist 2', which shows just how far modern AEB (or autonomous emergency braking) systems have come. 

Once, and not so long ago, a vehicle could automatically apply the brakes if it sensed a collision ahead. Hyundai's system, though, not only works in both directions, but also detects pedestrians and cyclists as well as cars, and works when you're pulling out of a junction and it detects fast-moving oncoming traffic. It also detects traffic coming in either direction when you're travelling straight through an intersection, and when you're changing lanes.

The Hyundai Elexio wears a full five-star ANCAP safety rating, though one stamped 'tested in 2024'. The data was actually taken from the crash-test result of the related Kia EV5.

The IM6 is covered by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, rather than MG’S 10-year term. Capped-price servicing is offered for the first five years, with your total bill just under $3000. The service intervals are 20,000kms or 12 months.

The Elexio is covered by Hyundai’s new seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, provided you service with Hyundai. If you don’t, then it's five years of coverage.

Service intervals are a pretty luxurious 24 months or 30,000kms, and Hyundai’s service plans will see you paying $779 at the two-year mark, and another $1118 at the four-year mark, which puts your annual cost at around $475.

I'd say that's about average, with the happily extended service intervals counterbalanced by slightly higher servicing costs than you might find with some competitors.