YES, it's a five door hatch, and yes it's somewhat boxy and suitably practical. But that's where the commonality with the everyday bread-and-butter family car ends.

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has an edgy exterior with cues from the 1970s that make it immediately noticeable in today's rather uniform car parks.

Horizontal body creases along the side, concealed flip-out door handles and door ‘mirrors' that project an image onto interior screens all add to the charisma.

What's more, it's electric with four-wheel-drive, so the avant garde body is matched to similarly technically advanced workings.

Our version was fitted with a 77.4kWh battery unit, the most powerful model, giving it a claimed range of around 300 miles and much punchier acceleration. The battery pack is placed under the floor which helps the car's balance and poise and the main motor is located at the rear, making the luggage area rather shallow.

The cabin is particularly spacious, partly due to the unusually long wheelbase, with a flat floor front and rear. Style is of the distinctly minimalist variety and most of the controls are operated through the huge rectangular touchscreen. Happily, audio volume is a conventional twist knob.

Seats front and rear are well shaped and supportive with those in the front being electrically operated.

Tested in flagship Namsan Edition form, it gets extra goodies such as a full length glass panoramic roof, heat pump and 64 colour ambient lighting.

The automatic gearbox is operated by a short, stubby lever protruding from the right of the steering column. Bit strange at first but it works perfectly well once you're used to it. I was less impressed with the screens that project the rear view image as, on several occasions, they misted up.

Another minor hitch was the driver's door handle which refused to retract on occasions.

Although the boot is fairly shallow, it's capable of swallowing up 527litres of luggage which is better than many rivals. There's also a storage box under the bonnet for keeping the charging cables.

In usual EV fashion, acceleration is immediate and vivid if the throttle is floored with 62mph coming up in less than six seconds. Clearly, it pays to be more judicial if you want to make the most of your power supply. It was noticeable that even operating the heater fan could knock 10 miles off the potential range.

Steering is pleasantly weighted and quite precise. It loads up well into bends and there's little body roll even when pressing on. The large 20-inch alloys shod with low profile rubber transmit some noise into the otherwise near silent cabin.

The ride is complaint and poised, even when having to deal with rutted or pock-marked surfaces.

Charging through the latest 350kW chargers can be quick and efficient, taking only 18 minutes to increase from 10pc to 80pc. The lesser model with a smaller 58kWh pack has a range of just 238 miles, far less user friendly.

With its striking, retro lines and generously sized cabin, together with Hyundai's class leading technology, the Ioniq 5 is among the most appealing EVs on the market. A five year warranty is icing on the tasty cake.

£57,945

77kWh battery, 321bhp, driving 4 wheels via single speed automatic gearbox

114mph

5.2 sec

305 miles

40

0.2 g/km

2%

5years/100,000 miles

4.1