2025 Hyundai Cars: New Trims for Elantra and Sonata, New Tech for Ioniq 6
Prices creep up on Hyundai sedan models. Is a sports car on the way?
Even though SUVs are the flavor of the day, Hyundai still sells a ton of sedans. Its Elantra compact and Sonata midsize cars do a brisk business, and just last year each received significant updates. Changes this year are more modest but include new Sport and Convenience trim levels, improvements in technology, and incremental price increases. There were even a couple Hyundai sedans that got more affordable this year. Here's everything new on 2025 Hyundai cars.
2025 Hyundai Elantra: What’s New
New trim levels and pricing changes come to the Elantra this year. The compact sedan loses an SEL grade but gains new midrange SEL Sport gas and hybrid variants, as well as an SEL Convenience gas trim.
Pricing for the Elantra SE base combustion model increases by $250 this year, and the N Line is up $260. Curiously, the high-end Limited trim, $540 less expensive than last year, is now more affordable than the N Line. Among Elantra Hybrid models, the Blue base trim has also come down in starting price this year, by $1,150, while the Hybrid Limited remains unchanged in MSRP.
Most Elantra sedans still start under $30,000—not new but appreciated, nonetheless. The enthusiast’s pick of the lineup, the Elantra N, sees no new features or trims this year and is expected to remain the most expensive variant.
2025 Hyundai Elantra Pros and Cons
Pros
- Smooth ride
- Spacious cabin
- Good value
- Fun Elantra N
Cons
- Coarse, underpowered base engine
- No wireless Apple CarPlay on top trims
- It must compete with the excellent Civic
2025 Hyundai Sonata: What’s New
The more affordable Sonata SE gas base trim is back after Hyundai cut it from the 2024 range. There’s also a new SEL Convenience version of the midsize sedan. It slots above the Sonata SEL and below the N Line—which picks up rear A/C vents this year—in the pure combustion lineup. The hybrid trim walk carries over from last year unchanged.
Like the Elantra, Sonata prices are up slightly. The 2025 SEL gas model is $250 more than the 2024 version, and the N Line model sees a $300 bump. Sticker pricing for the Sonata Hybrid SEL climbs $200 relative to last year, and the Hybrid Limited goes up $250 this year.
2025 Hyundai Sonata Pros and Cons
Pros
- Impressive standard screens
- Available with AWD
- Comfortable N Line model
Cons
- Base engine can get loud
- Slow hybrid model
- Needs something sportier than N Line
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 6: What’s New
A head-up display is now included as standard fare with the Ioniq 6 Limited. The only other equipment change this year is the retirement of the electric four-door lineup’s Digital Green exterior paint.
Due to the tech upgrade, Ioniq 6 Limited RWD and AWD models receive an $850 increase in price compared to last year. Retail pricing for all other models goes up only $250.
2025 Hyundai Ioniq 6 Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fast charging
- Great one-pedal driving mode
- Several configurations
- Excellent range
Cons
- Small trunk
- Cheap interior
- Divisive styling
Hyundai N 74: One (Tiny) Step Closer
There’s no denying we love the N Vision 74, the sport coupe concept based on Hyundai’s 1974 Pony design study and production model. But the newer car seemed to be a vaporware exercise, until September 2024 when rumors again started about a production version of the hybrid hydrogen performance car becoming reality. This time, it appears in some of the company’s future-looking investor relations materials without the word “Vision” in its name. Many take this to mean a real N 74 is a done deal, but we won’t be convinced until spy shots of preproduction models start surfacing. Until then, we cling to the dream.
2025 Hyundai Cars: What’s New
- 2025 Hyundai Elantra: Minor update
- 2025 Hyundai Sonata: Minor update
- 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 6: Minor update
- Hyundai N 74: Future model
My dad was a do-it-yourselfer, which is where my interest in cars began. To save money, he used to service his own vehicles, and I often got sent to the garage to hold a flashlight or fetch a tool for him while he was on his back under a car. Those formative experiences activated and fostered a curiosity in Japanese automobiles because that’s all my Mexican immigrant folks owned then. For as far back as I can remember, my family always had Hondas and Toyotas. There was a Mazda and a Subaru in there, too, a Datsun as well. My dad loved their fuel efficiency and build quality, so that’s how he spent and still chooses to spend his vehicle budget. Then, like a lot of young men in Southern California, fast modified cars entered the picture in my late teens and early 20s. Back then my best bud and I occasionally got into inadvisable high-speed shenanigans in his Honda. Coincidentally, that same dear friend got me my first job in publishing, where I wrote and copy edited for action sports lifestyle magazines. It was my first “real job” post college, and it gave me the experience to move just a couple years later to Auto Sound & Security magazine, my first gig in the car enthusiast space. From there, I was extremely fortunate to land staff positions at some highly regarded tuner media brands: Honda Tuning, UrbanRacer.com, and Super Street. I see myself as a Honda guy, and that’s mostly what I’ve owned, though not that many—I’ve had one each Civic, Accord, and, currently, an Acura RSX Type S. I also had a fourth-gen Toyota pickup when I met my wife, with its bulletproof single-cam 22R inline-four, way before the brand started calling its trucks Tacoma and Tundra. I’m seriously in lust with the motorsport of drifting, partly because it reminds me of my boarding and BMX days, partly because it’s uncorked vehicle performance, and partly because it has Japanese roots. I’ve never been much of a car modifier, but my DC5 is lowered, has a few bolt-ons, and the ECU is re-flashed. I love being behind the wheel of most vehicles, whether that’s road tripping or circuit flogging, although a lifetime exposed to traffic in the greater L.A. area has dulled that passion some. And unlike my dear ol’ dad, I am not a DIYer, because frankly I break everything I touch.
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