The IONIQ PHEV will have a modest 60 HP electric engine, so what Car & Driver is saying is most likely true. There may be an "electric only" button, but then you'd be left with a very heavy 60 HP car... even if electric motors deliver a lot of power at low speeds, you can guess it's not going to be fun or useful to drive at ramps, hills or motorway speeds.
I'm still getting the PHEV though, but my thought process is:
● Hopefully, it'll be faster than the regular HEV. I hope the extra HP in the electric engine is not there just to offset battery weight; IONIQ does 0..100 km/h in 10.8 s, which is ok but I want a faster car. (Rant: Why can't they make green *and* fast/fun/exciting *and* not fucking hideous? This is what Tesla gets and others do not; once they're here they'll just destroy their EV competition so badly it won't be even fun. Oh well, Hyundai at least delivered green and not fucking hideous, that makes it better than most.)
● Frankly, whenever commuting through heavy traffic, enjoying a scenic route in the mountains, in a rush, etc. I'll always use the IONIQ in S mode. It's faster, and I prefer driving manual (or fake manual like S mode is). I'll leave the D mode for boring highways or taking pets to the vet. In S mode, both engines are always used, unless you're out of battery, so I'm already counting for that.
● So I see the PHEV is basically a much better hybrid car where you can charge for extra savings and the battery can store much more energy (e.g. when going down mountains).
● Which means if I charge it every day, I'll be doing 2.2 l/100 km instead of 3.9 except on long trips. This is not an EV, but it'll beat all non-plug-in HEVs.
● There's always the Prius Prime, but Toyota has tried very hard and succeeded in not selling their car to me, with the HEV being the ugliest car I've ever seen since PT Cruiser, the Prime being marginally less outrageous but outrageously limited to 4 seats to compensate.
● It'll take years to get a decent supercharging network in my country. Once this happens, I'm keeping the IONIQ PHEV for long range trips (e.g. to the beach or anywhere I wouldn't be able to supercharge very reliably), and buying a Tesla Model 3 (the 500 km range one with two of these wonderful motors and AWD), provided the dashboard doesn't suck too much (please have a HUD...). IMO, Tesla is EV done right. EVs don't have to be cars for gramps; since I'm hurting the environment far less with it, I want a race car.