2019 HYUNDAI IONIQ PLUG-IN

2019 ASG AWARDS: Best All-Around Performance and Best Environmental Performance in the Full-size segment; and Best 5 All-Around Performance among all mid-large size cars.

NOTEWORTHY ASG FINDING: Best environmental performance of any car, crossover or SUV in 2019, holding the smallest carbon footprint over the first 6.5 years of its life-cycle.

ALL-AROUND PERFORMANCE RATING: 100

  • ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE RATING: 100
  • ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE RATING: 93
  • SOCIAL PERFORMANCE RATING: 85


The 2019 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid and Ioniq Plug-in swept the full-size car segment to win all accolades in class for the second consecutive year. ASG found the 2019 Hyundai Ioniq Plug-in to offer the best all-around performance of any model year 2019 full-size car, earning the distinguished BEST ALL-AROUND PERFORMANCE award in class. The Ioniq Plug-in furthered its winnings with the smallest carbon footprint, not only in its class, but the smallest carbon footprint of all 1,640 car, crossover and SUV variants assessed in The Study, earning ASG's BEST ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE award (accounts for resource extraction, processing, vehicle assembly, delivery, use and upstream fuel phases over the first 6.5 years of vehicle operation).

In ASG's economic assessment, the Ioniq Hybrid holds claim to the lowest cost of ownership when considering purchase and operating costs across the first 6.5 years, earning ASG's BEST ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE award in class. This is a significant milestone for the industry, when a hybrid powered vehicle offers the vest value by more than compensating for the upfront cost of the advanced technology in fuel costs savings by the first vehicle owner. It's a tribute to the Ioniq Hybrid's engineering and 58 MPG combined, the highest fuel rating of any non-electric vehicle in 2019. 

And finally, when assessing all 434 large cars, across classes, the Ioniq Hybrid and Ioniq Plug-in both landed a spot in the top five, earning ASG's BEST 5 ALL-AROUND PERFORMANCE honor. BEST 5 models are distinguished among an elite group of five vehicles to achieve the highest combined social, environmental and economic performance ratings.


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RELATIVE RATING METHOD

The Automotive Performance Index (API) applies statistical methods to demonstrate each vehicle rating in relative comparison. For example, the vehicle that performs highest in environment performance in a given class obtains a rating score of 100. Each vehicle in its class is then compared relative to the top-performing vehicle with a rating score reflecting the statistical difference in performance outcomes. A score of 91 translates to a 9% environmental performance deficit as compared to the top-performing vehicle.  

Due to the API’s relative vehicle rating method, vehicle class divisions were identified as a critical input - these class divisions are detailed here.

While the Automotive Performance Index is indeed an exhaustive list of vehicles to trim level detail, with each vehicle assessment reporting over 200 unique data outputs (the culmination of thousands of data inputs), ASG has taken additional measures to ease the burden of sorting through all data points and all vehicle assessments. We have developed key performance categories and sorted all vehicles in each class according to Environmental Performance, Social Performance, Economic Performance and All-Around Performance. The vehicle in each class with the best score in each unique category is named the performance award winner (i.e. Best Environmental Performance Award winner). The vehicle in each class that scores highest combined scores in Environmental Performance, Social Performance and Economic Performance is named the ASG Best All-Around Performance Award winner.

One step further, we also name the Best 5 All-Around Performance Award winners in each class to provide consumers with a concise product comparison guide.