Apple iPod Inventor Tony Fadell Is Pretty Impressed With the Hyundai Ioniq 5

“I'll tell you that it’s pretty damn cool for the price point,” Fadell told Jason Stein. “It feels like to me it's the new hot hatch,” which is pretty much spot on. $39,950 isn’t a lot of money for what you’re getting as standard, and lest we forget, a Ford Focus RS was more than $40k a few years ago.

More or less a glorified hatchback rather than a breakthrough electric SUV as Hyundai likes to describe it, the Ioniq 5 needs 5.1 seconds to reach 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) with dual-motor AWD and the long-range battery option. “I think you got to give it to Hyundai, they're doing a pretty good job with the EV stuff. The Japanese are out to lunch, but the Koreans are doing a pretty good job,” highlighted the American engineer.

Fadell also gave Jim Farley at FoMoCo a thumbs up for what his company is doing in the EV space. The F-150 Lightning is Fadell’s highlight for the time being, with Ford committed to spending billions over billions of $$$ on electric vehicles until 2030, the year Ford of Europe will go fully electric.

Tesla and Lucid are mentioned as well. “A couple of friends of mine who did iPhone and iPod, they're actually in charge of those programs. It's funny that the iPod and iPhone teams, even some people from Nest, are leading the teams at Rivian and Lucid. They're at Tesla as well,” added Fadell, who further admits that he’s a huge fan of the V8-engined Audi RS 6 Avant.