I have both of these cars now, and they are very opposite, but very complementary to our needs. We need two cars anyway in our household, and we have different needs for where and how we drive. Our Solterra has the off-road chops we need to go to our cabin. I have the one size over A/T WildPeaks, 235/65 R18 on new wheels giving me 8.8" clearance. And they work really well on our rough FSR road. Plus they don't make the road noise of the K02s which I had on my Crosstek. The Solterra doesn't have long range or fast charging, but that doesn't matter to us, for our uses. Our cabin has off-grid solar there with enough power to charge the Solterra. Then we have the Ioniq 6 with high range and really fast charging. Have only had it for 3 weeks now, but have done a couple day trips with it already. And indeed range is very good as is the fast charging. So it is a great trip car, which we will use for longer trips. But I have also noticed some interesting differences between these cars. The Solterra is pretty quiet, compared to our previous Crosstrek. But the I6 is at another level, with its all around double laminated acoustic windows. At highway speeds it is a pleasure to listen to music with full clarity. And even when passing a semi, you can barely hear them, almost eerie. On the tech side, the Solterra has some advantages. You can't use the Nav without a subscription, but with wireless AA and Carplay, that is no problem, as I prefer Waze anyway. The I6 does does not have wireless AA and Carplay, but it does have a native Nav without a subscription which works pretty well. So I am OK with that. However, the I6 also uses the Nav to slow down around curves with its cruise control. But it doesn't work on all roads, only major highways, and you need to be sure your Nav maps are uptodate. The Solterra appears to slow down on curves just using its cameras and radar. Works very well actually, and on any roads. We have a lot of curvy roads here in the mountains in BC, so this capability is very useful. With Climate control, the Solterra also has better options and capabilities. When pressing ECO on the Climate control panel, it also turns on auto heating of the seats and steering wheel when you first get in during cold weather and shuts off when warmed up. Same with seat ventilation, comes on automatically when it is hot and turns off after the interior cools down. I think this is configurable, but I am good with the default temp trigger settings. The I6 does not have these automatic controls. You need to turn on the steering and seat heating (and cooling) manually. Both of these cars have a pretty nice ride, but I think the Solterra is even softer over the bumps, esp with the larger sidewall tires/wheels. The I6 with its 20" tires/wheels and only 40 sidewall has a pretty tight suspension, more like a sports car. Again, different cars in this respect, and depends on your personal preference. For pure comfort I think I prefer the Solterra. There are lots of other differences, of course, but I thought the above ones were interesting and notable. The Solterra is actually a much better car than the auto journalists give it credit for. I am very pleased with the purchase, and while we can talk about the little niggles, it does what it is designed for very well.
