MOTOR WEST

HYUNDAI'S IONIO 6 GOES THE DISTANCE ON HISTORIC ROUTE 66.

- Dan Edmunds

ROUTE 66 AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE. The Mother Road has long been bypassed by the Interstate Highway System, and most of its once-numerous roadside motels, gas stations, and eateries have vanished beneath the blades of bulldozers. Those that remain generally fall into one of two categories: graffiti-slathered skeletons of their former selves that live on in Instagram infamy or Route 66 memorabilia outfits selling tchotchkes and supplies to infrequent passersby.

But the road still has a lot of appeal, especially the more desolate stretches that wander far from the interstate through lonely yet beautiful lands that convey a sense of time travel. These are places where you can see the weather advancing across the countryside as you drive down into the valley to meet it. There are few people out here and even fewer services, making it an interesting environment to take the new Hyundai Ioniq 6 electric sedan off leash on a road trip.

The sleek Ioniq 6 sedan shares much with the Ioniq 5 SUV. Both ride on Hyundai's acclaimed E-GMP platform, with an available long-range battery pack that stores 77.4 kWh of electricity. The Ioniq 6 is available in rear wheel drive with a rear-mounted motor that provides 225 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque or all-wheel drive with an added front motor that bumps total output to 320 horses and 446 pound-feet. Curiously, Hyundai claims both Ioniqs weigh nearly the same, with the SUV's gross vehicle weight rating exceeding the sedan's by just 44 pounds in long-range spec.

That they look radically different is self-evident, but there's much to glean from the details. The sedan is 8.6 inches longer than the SUV, while its roofline is 4.1 inches lower. At 0.22, its coefficient of drag betters the cubist SUV's by 23.6 percent. Combine this with its tidier frontal area, and we estimate the Ioniq 6 enjoys a 30 percent reduction in aerodynamic drag force.