Hyundai is heavily invested in electrifying its lineup and makes several 2023 electric cars. However, the EV segment is still in its infancy outside of California, so most electric vehicles aren’t wildly popular. Case in point: A discontinued Ford SUV is outselling the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6.

How is the Hyundai Ioniq 6 selling compared to the Ford EcoSport?

The brand-new Hyundai Ioniq 6 isn’t selling like hotcakes. So far this year, the electric sedan has sold 2,083 units. Last month, Hyundai moved 971 Ioniq 6 units, meaning about half of the EV’s year-to-date sales happened in May 2023. In the first quarter of 2023, the sedan sold 222 units. That means the automaker sold 890 Ioniq 6 units in April.

This abysmal number places the Ioniq 6 near the bottom of the chart, GoodCarBadCar reports. The Nexo, a hydrogen car sold only in California, is the only Hyundai model that sold worse than the new EV.

In comparison, the EcoSport — a subcompact SUV that Ford discontinued in the middle of last year — is selling better than the Ioniq 6. So far this year, the Blue Oval has sold 2,219 EcoSport units. That’s 136 more than the Ioniq 6. Even though it’s retired, the EcoSport is still selling, thanks to leftovers on dealership lots. 

It’s a bad look for the new 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6

Ford killed the EcoSport in favor of the Maverick last summer, so those factories have been building Maverick pickups rather than EcoSport SUVs for almost a year. Meanwhile, the highly anticipated Ioniq 6 debuted only recently. Hyundai began selling the EV in America this past spring, so it hasn’t had an entire year to build sales. 

However, Hyundai’s factories have been humming along all this time, and despite that steady stream of new cars, the Ioniq 6 hasn’t outsold the EcoSport. That’s embarrassing because many other vehicles have already surpassed the EcoSport’s year-to-date sales numbers.

It’s also embarrassing because the EcoSport was an unremarkable SUV that came and went quickly. Meanwhile, the Ioniq 6 is one of the first dedicated all-electric vehicles in the South Korean automaker’s stable. And because it’s an EV, it’s newer and cooler than the EcoSport, which putters along on a generic gas-powered engine.

That said, although the Ioniq 6’s slow sales are cringe-worthy now, Hyundai has no reason to panic. 

There are a couple of reasons why this is happening

Another Hyundai model bearing the Ioniq nameplate — the Ioniq 5 all-electric crossover SUV — is selling well, already moving 10,500 units this year. But more important, the Ioniq 6 has not been around long. It debuted this spring, so April and May were the first two months the car began selling at a decent pace.

And in terms of pace, the Ioniq 5 beats the EcoSport, so it wasn’t embarrassed by the discontinued SUV. In May 2023, Ford sold 250 units of the subcompact crossover. That’s much less than the nearly 1,000 units the Ioniq 6 sold that month. Thus, the Ioniq 6 should soon outsell the EcoSport after June’s numbers are counted.