Hyundai IONIQ 5 (2021-2024) vs Nissan ARIYA

The Hyundai IONIQ 5 is £5 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £168 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the two land within £5 of each other - effectively the same to own. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 199 miles for the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and 209 miles for the Nissan ARIYA - effectively matched, and both well below their WLTP figures because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 18 minutes in the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and 30 in the Nissan ARIYA, so the Hyundai IONIQ 5 loses less time at each stop.

The Nissan ARIYA is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 40 mm narrower than the Hyundai IONIQ 5. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 550 mm of total clearance for the Nissan ARIYA and about 510 mm of total clearance for the Hyundai IONIQ 5. The Nissan ARIYA also turns in a 0.5 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 89% battery health for the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and 84% for the Nissan ARIYA. That gives the Hyundai IONIQ 5 a modest edge in retained real-world range. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.