I Drove My 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 On A 350-Mile Road Trip And Found Ionna's New Chargers Powerful But Completely Deserted, While The Driver Attention System Nearly Drove Me Crazy

By the time a car like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 hits the road, expectations are not just high, they are stratospheric. This is not a stopgap model or a tentative dip into electrification. 

The Ioniq 5 has earned a reputation as a complete, confident EV with charging speed that borders on witchcraft, origami sheetmetal that still turns heads, and a cabin that feels like a clean modernist studio on wheels. When a car is that good, the spotlight shifts. 

Every minor misstep, every system that does not quite land, glows like neon under a blacklight. That is the paradox of excellence, and it is where one owner’s very practical road trip reveals how greatness can amplify the small stuff.

“I took the longest road trip that I have taken so far in my 2025 Ioniq 5. About 350 miles from Indianapolis to the suburbs of Pittsburgh. I decided to try the Ionna chargers at Reynoldsburg, Ohio, which is just east of Columbus. Took me three tries to get the charge to start. The first two times, I got the charging failed message from the car almost instantly. I used the NACS plug. 

Supposedly, you can use your ChargePoint app to pay for the charging there, but the ChargePoint app was deciding it did not want to cooperate at the moment, so I still have not gotten any of my $400 in free charges that Hyundai gave me with my car.  

Once it finally decided to work, the charger took off very fast and behaved exactly as it should.   I tried using their restroom, which is done in a bit of an odd fashion. You have to look for a little tiny QR code on the charging screen and take a picture of it with your phone, then they text a link where you can ask for entry to the bathroom. Then they text you back a link to give you an entry.  

You’re also supposed to use the link to exit the place, but I just pushed and grabbed on both handles and opened the door.  The bathroom was certainly clean, but the waiting area was very Spartan. There’s a single vending machine for drinks and another single vending machine for some snacks. There was absolutely nobody at the place, but me, which is kind of concerning considering it was a Thursday around noon or so by a very busy highway. 

I would’ve liked to have lunch, but there was no place nearby to conveniently walk to get lunch.  I think their business model is maybe a bit off. I don’t think a single woman would be too keen on coming here when there’s any other person anywhere around.  

And I don’t think I’d even be keen on going there at night alone. I think it would be better to put their chargers by a convenience store or something similar, where there are plenty of selections of things to eat and drink, and people around all the time.  Looks like to me they’re carrying way too much overhead for the amount of business they’re going to be able to generate.  I’ll try again on the way back home, but I think they need to rethink how they’re doing this because I don’t see how it could be profitable long-term. It’s very hard to find a gas station that’s not associated with a convenience store. And there’s a reason. That’s how they make their money.

As for the car, it performed well except for the extremely aggravating nagging of the driver's attention system when using the cruise control. I’ve noticed it seems worse in the morning as I’m heading toward the sun. I was driving eastbound, and the thing was just driving me crazy. As the day wore on and the sun started coming around from the side of the passenger door, it started behaving a lot better. They truly need to come up with a software update for this system because it’s just ridiculous. In fact, it’s so bad. I don’t think I’d buy another car if it had it.   At least not until they fix it.  I tried several kinds of sunglasses, and none of them seemed to cooperate very well with it. The ones I had on today were unpolarized, and it still having fits.”

The car itself performed like a seasoned grand tourer. The charger, once it engaged, delivered the goods. The setting, however, felt like a deserted outpost with a QR code for a key and not a sandwich in sight. That disconnect matters. Fueling has always been about more than refueling. People want food, light, bathrooms, and other people around. The owner’s observation that these stations should live beside convenience stores is not nostalgia; it is sound business. The great irony is that a powerful charger in an empty lobby feels less modern than a slower plug beside a well-lit C store.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 Electric Architecture

• The Ioniq 5 stands out with its 800V architecture, enabling ultra-fast DC charging that can replenish the battery from 10% to 80% in as little as 20 minutes, a significant advantage for long-distance travel.
• The 2025 model is one of the first non-Tesla EVs to feature a native NACS port, providing direct, adapter-free access to over 17,000 Tesla Superchargers, greatly expanding its fast-charging network.
• The Ioniq 5's distinctive design, inspired by the Hyundai Pony, combines a retro aesthetic with futuristic pixelated lighting, creating a unique and eye-catching presence on the road.
• Owners who have switched from competitors like the Tesla Model Y praise the Ioniq 5 for its noticeably smoother, quieter, and more comfortable ride, making it a more pleasant daily driver.

The comments from the community push the point from preference to principle. Virginia Odien, 67, and traveling with hard-earned caution, put it plainly. “I am very, very wary about any charging station with no open businesses around.” She can charge at home, she can plan carefully, but on the road, she wants daytime stops in busy places. 

That is not politics. It is a basic design for all ages and genders. If an amenity model implicitly discourages a significant share of drivers from feeling safe, the model needs revision. Tie chargers to places with eyes, options, and staff. That is how gas stations made side money. It is also how travelers build trust.

Not every gripe is about real estate. The Ioniq 5’s driver attention system, a good idea in theory, can behave like an overcaffeinated hall monitor. Owner Alan Peterson Sr. wrote that if he could do it over, he would keep his 2022 without the system. 

Workarounds For Lane Following Assist

Joe Conroy offered a practical workaround, noting that turning off Lane Following Assist silenced the warnings while leaving cruise and lane keeping active. That is a telling compromise. When you must disable one safety tool to make another tolerable, the calibration is not quite right. Sun angle, eyewear, and interior reflections can confuse camera-based attention systems. The result is a steady drumbeat of alerts in a car otherwise tuned for calm.

Here is the crux. The Ioniq 5 is so thoroughly competent that the last five percent becomes the whole conversation. Ride and packaging are excellent, charging performance is strong, and day-to-day livability is a genuine achievement. Because the fundamentals are nailed, the small stuff is not small. A spotless restroom with a scavenger hunt entry, a blank lobby at high noon by a busy highway, an attention monitor that fusses at the wrong moments, all of it stands out in relief against an excellent machine that deserves an ecosystem and software suite to match.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 Physical Buttons & More

• In an era of increasing minimalism, the Ioniq 5 is lauded for its retention of physical buttons for key functions like climate control and heated seats, offering a more intuitive and less distracting user experience than touchscreen-only interfaces.
• The flat floor and long wheelbase create a surprisingly spacious and open cabin for a compact SUV, with flexible seating and practical cargo space for a variety of needs.
• From the affordable SE Standard Range to the rugged XRT and the high-performance N, the Ioniq 5 lineup offers a wide range of options to cater to different budgets, lifestyles, and performance demands.

There are straightforward fixes. Site chargers where people already are, at 24-hour truck stops and convenience stores with food, cameras, and staff. Design bathrooms without friction. Build redundancy into payment so a single app hiccup does not strand free charging credits. On the vehicle side, refine the driver monitoring stack for sun glare and eyewear, provide clearer user controls, and ensure that lane centering can be enjoyed without a chorus of false alarms. None of this requires reinvention. It requires alignment between a great car and the world it moves through.

Credit where it is due. The Ioniq 5 remains an excellent vehicle, one that earns its praise without caveat. The owners and commenters are not detractors. They are coauthors in the long road of product improvement, offering the kind of grounded feedback that turns a very good experience into a great one. When a product is this strong, the obligation is to elevate the last mile. That is how trust is built, trips are simplified, and the promise of the car is matched by the reality of the journey.

Image Sources: Hyundai Media Center

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.