THE World Car of the Year has arrived in the UK with the release of the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 6.

Super-sleek in design, the car is dubbed a Streamliner by its Korean makers and uses many slithery features to make it ultra-aerodynamic.

There is also a pixel party in the Ioniq 6's styling that sees hundreds of them used throughout the body - inside and out.

It's state of the art design using the latest techniques and the plethora of pixels extends even to the steering wheel where they replace the conventional Hyundai H logo with four pixel dots - Morse code for H.

Outside the treatment continues in the front and rear light clusters while on the interior they form part of the ambient light strips that can be found throughout the cockpit.

With aerodynamics such a priority in the Ioniq 6's design - the car has one of the lowest drag co-efficients in the automotive world at 0.21 - it gives drivers the chance to optimise the range and get the most out of the vehicle.

The Ioniq 6 is available in either rear or all-wheel-drive set ups with both powered by a 77.4kWh battery developing 228ps in rear-wheel-drive or a hefty 325ps in AWD.

It endows the car with a full charge range of up to 338 miles - 322 miles for the 4x4 - and high-speed recharging sees an 80 per cent recharge possible in just over an hour and 10 minutes.

A full overnight charge at home takes just under 12 hours from a 7 kW hook-up or seven hours 20 minutes from a 10.5kW unit.

The Ioniq 6 comes in two specifications - Premium and Ultimate - and is priced from £47,040 for rear-drive versions or £50,540 for the all-wheel-drive model.

Ultimate trim starts from the same as the Premium RWD version and tops out at £54,040 for all-wheel-drive.

Top speed for both is 115mph and 0 to 62mph acceleration is 7.4 seconds for RWD models and a brisk 5.1 for the all-wheel-drive.

That's all quite similar to the performance of Hyundai's Ioniq 5 SUV and both are built on the company's new Electric-Global Modular Platform or E-GMP which has been devised for its electric future.

Measuring some 4.85 metres long, the Ioniq 6 is 1.88 metres wide and 1.49 metres high with a long wheelbase of 2.95 metres leading to plenty of space on the inside.

Despite the curvy roofline there is a surprising amount of headroom in the rear and the car can sit five adults. With four on board there is a great amount of comfort.

Boot space is 401 litres on both rear and all-wheel-drive versions and being electric there is more luggage space under the bonnet in the shape of a ‘frunk' which comes in at 45 litres on RWD versions but is reduced to 12 litres to accommodate the extra gubbins needed on the all-wheel-drive models.

We have just been putting an all-wheel-drive Ioniq 6 in Premium specification through its paces and it impresses in every way.

Like the Ioniq 5, the cabin has a minimalist feel to it with most functions centred around two 12.3-inch display screens flowing into each other across the dashboard.

The central screen displays navigation and other infotainment information while the screen ahead of the driver accommodates more conventional instrumentation and vehicle settings although in a high-tech fashion.

Performance is brisk off the mark if needed and with AWD it feels very well planted and controllable under all circumstances.

Sound levels are well suppressed especially over poor road surfaces and with three drive modes - eco, normal, sport - on hand the car can be set up to deliver everything from rewarding performance motoring to smooth cruising.

Eco mode helps energy conservation and regenerative braking is available from steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters which can enable single-pedal operation in traffic.

Monitoring the range closely on one leg of our drive saw us showing a full charge range of 286 miles falling to 245 miles after 40 miles of driving in eco mode, 239 miles remaining in normal mode and 231 in the sport setting.

According to the onboard computer, the 40 mile journey had reduced the available energy to 85 per cent - so no quibbles about the overall range of the Ioniq 6.

A full range of driver safety systems is standard and gives the Ioniq 6 level two autonomous driving ability thanks to a forward facing camera system that not only keeps the car a safe distance from other vehicles while keeping the Ioniq 6 centred in its lane.

From the 700 pixels incorporated in its design to its super-sleek looks and genuine long-range performance, the Ioniq 6 is a car with a difference in the new age of electric motoring.

With Hyundai planning to expand its Ioniq EV sub-brand even further with the launch of the seven-seat Ioniq 7 large SUV it sees the Korean brand positioning itself to embrace electric driving with vehicles that actually provide adequate range for family needs - and retain fun for drivers who want performance.

For Hyundai it means the future is arriving now - and at the moment the design feast that is the Ioniq 6 is right to be crowned the best in the world.