Hyundai’s “VIP” EV experience
My partner and I were keen on the Ioniq 6 as a replacement to my old car when it was written off in an accident. But buying one—or simply even arranging a test drive—proved far more challenging than we ever imagined.
I recently had the misfortune of being involved in an accident (not my fault) that resulted in my trusty steed being written off. My partner and I really didn’t want to shell out good money on another internal combustion engine (ICE) car for a variety of reasons — environmental, economic, energy independence.
Having had an avid interest in electric cars for decades—since first seeing the film Who Killed the Electric Car? in 2006—I’d been researching the market for some time, to understand the different aspects of the cars coming out (I can highly recommend the Fully Charged show on YouTube if you’re interested).
Based on what I’d seen, I was very keen on a few cars that will be available, next year. In particular, the Volvo EX30 and the Zeekr X had caught my attention. So, while I had planned on holding off converting to an electric car for another 12–18 months, our circumstances had expedited the whole process.
My partner and I have discussed a raft of considerations, including: price; battery range; interior features and accoutrements, company ownership (esp. in relation to cybersecurity); the balance of physical controls inside the vehicle vs all touch-screen (à la Tesla’s ‘one big screen’ — neither of us are fans); build quality; serviceability; and availability.
Looking at the options available right now (i.e. that we could drive off the lot) we decided to focus our inquiries on the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and the Kia EV6. Other potentials were the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, and the Polestar 2, but we weren’t enamoured with certain aspects of each. (The Volvo EX30 and MG4 are imminent, but not yet available in Australia. And we’d decided the BYD Atto 3 wasn’t suitable, based on our criteria.)
Some months ago, I inquired about the Ioniq 6 at our “local” Hyundai dealership (well, not so local—located in Penrith, it is about an hour away from our home), and was made aware that not all dealerships carried EVs, including the Ioniq 6.
So, I went to the Ioniq 6 website, seeking information on which dealerships carried the car and offered test drives.
Notably, there was no option to organise a test drive, at any dealership.
Regardless, I went through the online process of configuring a vehicle to see if I could get pricing and availability. While pricing was easily accessible, the website listed a broad 8-week window for possible delivery (viewing the site at the start of of July, it listed “Jul/Aug” as the delivery date). Considering we were in a rush to purchase, this was not all that helpful…
As an aside, the poor 3D renders on the site did nothing to provide a realistic depiction of the colours of the vehicle’s exterior or interior — many of which are so subtly close to each other it’s hard to tell them apart. Seriously—take a look at the Abyss Black, Grey Metallic, Biophilic Ink and Digital Green and tell me if you can see the difference on the site? We ended up having to scour YouTube for video reviews, to see if we could get a better sense of the cars than Hyundai were providing in their own online materials.
I called Hyundai’s national sales & test drive number, but was put through to voicemail three times!?! Whilst I was still playing phone tag with the head office sales team, I finally found a list of dealerships, a few steps along in the website’s ordering process. Progress! None were local, but I called one in Parramatta, about an hour and a half away, as that was one of the more accessible locations in the list for us.
While the staff member I spoke to was cheery and did what they could, they were unable to provide any further information on the vehicle than I’d already determined. Further, they indicated that I needed to speak to head office to get answers to my questions, and to organise a test drive. For some reason, individual dealerships couldn’t book test drives themselves, even though they were listed as being able to do so.
And, the kicker: they indicated I’d need to make a $2,000 refundable deposit (!?!) before being able to even test drive the vehicle.
When I eventually connected with a sales rep at head office by phone, I raised my frustrations about my experience. They suggested that Hyundai were trying to create a “VIP experience” that would connect potential customers with specialists who knew all about the EVs.
I’m familiar with this approach—Apple did this for years due to a predominantly PC marketplace not quite knowing how to sell Mac computers—and I can see that it might make sense for EVs. For example, across the various dealers we dealt with, many of them continually referred to “fuel” rather than charging.
But… so far, I was feeling a long way from a VIP.
They told me that the next time I called, I should use a different phone menu option to speak to a “specialist.” This option was listed in the phone prompts as being for “customer experience”— no mention of EVs, test drives, or anything else that would indicate this was the “correct” option for my queries. I would never have thought to select it without the sales rep’s prompt.
And so, the next time I called, I used that option as advised. Yet again, the person I spoke to was unable to answer most of my questions. They indicated that I needed to speak to the “specialist EV sales team,” and that they weren’t it…!?!
If not them, then who??
Did anyone in Hyundai actually know anything about their EVs?
Apparently, there was a team I could email. No, I couldn’t call them. I had to email them to get more information, and then wait on their reply.
Bear in mind, this was all happening while I was in the throws of organising finance and evaluating other brands and options. I was a serious buyer, willing to put down a significant deposit, and turn around the sale within a week, if possible.
I did email the “specialist EV sales team” as requested, noting that I was keen to arrange a test drive within the next few days, and had some questions before I put the deposit down to lock that all in.
It is now three weeks since I sent that email, and still no response.
No, I definitely wasn’t feeling the “VIP experience”.
By this point, my partner and I were seriously questioning what sort of after-sales support we would receive, if it was this hard to make a purchase.
We then found out that not all Hyundai dealerships could actually service their EVs. Furthermore, the dealerships that could do the servicing were often different to those that were offering test drives. Notably, we wouldn’t be able to go to our local dealership to get the car serviced each year. If I recall correctly, the nearest service centre was at Castle Hill—a similar distance to Parramatta, about 1.5 hours away from where we live.
I don’t recall ever seeing a list of service dealerships on the Ioniq 6 website, so we’d need to call head office to work this out in the case of an issue. Thinking about this on longer trips, it made us extremely nervous.
So, at this point, we simply gave up.
By the time we stopped pursuing the Ioniq 6, we had:
- Contacted 2 separate Kia dealerships, both of which were knowledgeable about the vehicles;
- Determined that both dealerships had vehicles in stock;
- Test driven a vehicle;
- Had preliminary approval on finance, and were in the throws of finalising this; and
- Determined that any Kia dealership can sell and service their EVs; and that each dealership has a technical lead on team to do so (in stark contrast to what we’d been told by Hyundai about their vehicles).
Suffice to say, we picked up our new EV6 GT rear-wheel drive from Kia, this weekend. Thank you, Kia, for such a smooth, simple, and professional experience.
I should note that my previous car was a Hyundai, a 2012 i30 diesel hatchback. I had tremendous respect for that car. We have had excellent service from the Penrith dealership. The car itself has been superb in all respects, including reliability. I consider myself pretty brand loyal and really wanted to give the Ioniq 6 a go.
Both my partner and I really liked it on paper, and were impressed by the reviews we’ve seen. Its battery range is one of the best out there. I know it’s not universally loved, but I’m one of those folks that really likes the shape. I find it reminiscent of Porsche or some sports-oriented Mercedes cars.
But Hyundai Australia, as a company, just put up too many barriers and showed such a lack of interest in making the sale that it could never be considered a serious contender.
Even when we were saying, “Take my money. I want to buy, today!” we just couldn’t arouse their interest or service.
It’s interesting to note that Kia is a “sister” company to Hyundai. Word is that Hyundai are providing technical and other support to Kia dealerships to develop their EV capabilities. And yet…
So much for creating a “VIP experience”, Hyundai! 😖
