So, how does it drive?

Leaving the Hyundai dealership with a 40 km EV budget shown on the trip computer display, I arrived to work with 30 km left … after a 17 km drive. An over-achieving plug-in? I knew right then that this would be an interesting week. Impressions on that first drive bode well for what was to follow. Hold the brake pedal, press the start button and select “D”. The car releases the electric parking brake by itself, an interesting touch that other manufacturers could follow.

I silently motored onto the Metropolitan highway, where all the “driver aids” immediately went berserk, sensing impending doom. Relax microchips, you’re in Montreal. Since all “smart” vehicles I drive do the same, I quickly found the buttons to deactivate the lane departure warning and blind-spot warning just to the left, above my knee. Coming right out of another electric car, feeling the transmission changing gears on electric power felt odd at first, but the hardware upgrades work and the shifts are smooth.

Truth is, this setup felt more natural than the CVT in Ford’s plug-ins, especially on the rare occasions the 2.0L engine came on. The transmission allows for the familiar “direct drive” of regular cars, unlike the CVT-induced disconnected generator feel of the Ford plug-ins. Another major difference with the Fords is that the Sonata PHEV is no slug in EV mode, even with “Eco” mode activated. The car will accelerate with traffic and will not become a hypermiling road block. Prodding the throttle harder will turn on the 2.0L with no drama or undue vibration or jerkiness, acceleration becoming class-competitive. The typical high-torque feel that comes behind the wheel of an EV is right there at your fingertip, by using the “Mode” button behind the shifter to turn off Eco.

Maybe driving an EV for a whole week got me used to regenerative brakes, but it seemed to me that brake feel here was natural, with progressive pedal travel and none of that “regen” hypersensitivity. Steering feel and heft are also much improved, even though you won’t be chasing any apexes while sipping electrons. You’re in business class, remember?

Soundproofing is one area where more effort could be directed. Maybe it’s just the missing “white noise” when running in EV mode, but my built-in sound meters kept telling my left hand to check if all windows were up; oddly, even though internal combustion engines are pretty quiet at cruising speeds these days, the silent running that comes with electric propulsion seems to amplify outside noise. I don’t have scientific proof, but I’d swear the previous week’s Focus EV was more hushed inside despite its economy-class roots. The Sonata PHEV is shod with 215/55R17 Kumho Solus TA31 all-seasons, tires that I thought at first to be of the run-flat type, given the fact that the car comes with a tire inflator kit instead of a spare (the spare-tire well is used in part by hybrid system componentry). Because a plug-in runs on EV power a lot, tire noise is more easily noticed and I found the Kumhos to be a bit loud, more so than the 225/50R17 Michelins that were under my Focus EV tester.

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