Auto Dealers Still Have A Massive Problem — Hyundai Experience – CleanTechnica

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Last Updated on: 27th July 2025, 01:29 am

So, let me first start off by saying that I went to a Kia dealer today and had a superb experience with the sales rep there. He knew a ton about the EV6 we test drove, but also about other electric vehicles. He was extremely eager to be helpful, answer questions, and show us things we might not know. Now, it turns out his dad was an early VC investor in Tesla … so he was not normal. Nonetheless, he did comment that most sales people his age knew a lot about electric cars and things were changing (from that at least) in terms of helping people buy EVs.

After that experience, my family and I were eager to go test drive a Hyundai IONIQ 5 at a nearby Hyundai dealer. But … oy …

It took a few moments for a salesperson to pay attention to us when we came in, and then it took a few more moments to find someone who was free to help us. That’s fine I guess — busy place and unlucky timing. However, the person who was finally recruited to give us a test drive in an IONIQ 5, well, let’s just say that he was not the most enthusiastic salesperson I’ve ever met and he didn’t seem to know much about the IONIQ 5, or care to sell it.

He wasn’t well versed in the regen braking options, and would just assume certain capabilities before showing his actual lack of familiarity with the car. Rather than demonstrate anything that stood out about the IONIQ 5 that would make me want to buy it instead of a Kia EV6 or Volkswagen ID.4, he admitted to having little experience with the IONIQ 5 and no real knowledge of what the competition offered. He also seemed to assume all EVs had similar features and driving characteristics.

The complete lack of interest in finding or showing us anything unique or cool about the car was certainly a massive turnoff. Though, the real deal-breaker with the IONIQ 5 was a total lack of air conditioning vents in the back seats. What??? With two young kids in Florida, sorry, but that’s just not something you can accept. On the short test drive, everyone sitting in the back seat found it very uncomfortable to not have air vents.*

Oh, yeah, the length of the test drive…. My wife commented that he seemed to direct us to take the shortest test drive possible. Again, I get it if it was the end of the day and the guy was eager to go home. However, it was striking and truly shocking that the salesperson seemed to have no interest in selling us the car, or just knew so little about the IONIQ 5 that he wanted to get out of the car and move on as quickly as possible. Perhaps there was another normal “EV guy” or two who specialized in selling EVs. Many dealers have this, and the Kia guy indicated there were two of them (him and another guy) at the Kia dealership who were their go-to sales people — the other guy even owned an EV6. However, in 2025, it seems that any salesperson at a car dealership should have solid understanding of their EV offerings and some talking points about why they are better than the competition.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since I’ve seen investigations and research on the commonly poor car dealership approach to selling EVs in the US. However, I was admittedly expecting much more by now. Even my experience about a decade ago helping my mom shop for an EV in Florida left me less upset and jaded. How could this be the level of EV sales today?

Okay, let’s get back to the Kia experience and note how good the guy’s experience, expertise, and enthusiasm was. That was high level sales. He should be commended for that, and it does show how much has improved … in some cases. And two cases are not enough to make a scientific argument. Maybe the Kia experience was more typical of the norm than the Hyundai one. I’ll go do some more EV test driving soon and see if I discover more hope than disappointment. In the meantime, any feedback would be welcome on what you think we should evaluate when doing an auto dealership EV test drive.

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* Well, guess what: According to a quick check on Google, the IONIQ 5 does have air vents in the back seats. “The Hyundai IONIQ 5 does have rear air vents, but their location and control differ depending on the trim level. Some models have vents integrated into the rear pillars, while others have vents on the floor. The rear vents are typically controlled through the front climate control system, either by syncing with the front temperature or by using dedicated rear climate controls on the touchscreen or physical buttons.” So, despite asking about this at least three or four times and expressing our total shock that there weren’t air vents in the back, the salesperson repeatedly told us that there weren’t AC vents back there.

A post on reddit from three years ago asks, “Does the the US model of the Ioniq 5 SE have rear AC vents? I know some international models do not have rear AC vents, but I have not been able to confirm if the US model SE excludes them.” An IONIQ 5 owner responds, “There are still floor vents, just none on the side pillars or above. Havent noticed a problem with it keeping the back hot/cold with 2 kids in the back.” Another respondent said, “There are floor vents for the rear seats. However, you have to turn them on in the climate settings. You can save some energy by turning them off if you don’t have rear passengers, same for the passenger seat.” I would not be surprised at all if the Hyundai salesperson had no clue about this.

But … there is a chance he was right in this case. One commenter responded “US Model does not come with for SE. Unless you are in 98+ degree weather year round with direct sun light 80% of the year and park outside at home, then you should be fine” and another said “Not available on SE. Standard on SEL and Limited. https://www.hyundainews.com/assets/documents/original/48174-2022Ioniq5ProductGuidefeatures090821.pdf“

To wrap up on this topic, though, in a separate reddit post specifically asking about air vents in the back in an SE trim IONIQ 5 versus an SEL trim IONIQ 5, someone responded, “The SE still has floor vents. You do have to manually direct air back there.

“That being said, we got the SEL specifically for the pillar vents because we have a toddler and it feels better having air directed at your face/upper body. Plus air is automatically directed back there and you can control the temperature by using the passenger temp controls.”

Perhaps it is a lot to ask to expect a Hyundai salesperson to know the intricacies of different IONIQ 5 AC systems, but in super hot Florida, one would expect the salesperson to be able to give a correct answer about whether there are air conditioning vents in the back seat. Though, given this guy’s overall understanding of the car and interest in selling it, well, there are probably bigger things to worry about.