Perhaps you should start negotiating now.
Are you close enough to two dealerships to leverage one against the other?
Being ready early in the market may get you a leg up on selection.
The dealerships may have other incentives (including self-serving ones) to make a deal vis-a-vis your current lease, too.
It also does no harm to develop a little rapport with somebody in sales...the higher up the better.
The 2025 5's, and the 9's, now and in the future, are NACS.

 

Perhaps you should start negotiating now.
Are you close enough to two dealerships to leverage one against the other?
Being ready early in the market may get you a leg up on selection.
The dealerships may have other incentives (including self-serving ones) to make a deal vis-a-vis your current lease, too.
It also does no harm to develop a little rapport with somebody in sales...the higher up the better.
The 2025 5's, and the 9's, now and in the future, are NACS.

Yes, I want to start gathering information now, so I can be informed when I go to the dealers. I am in Sillicon Valley area, near San Jose, CA. Most of the Hyundai dealers in this area are part of DG group, so same owner. I don't know if I can get them to bid against each other.

 

9 is a beast, both range wise and space in cabin wise. I'm sure it will last 10 years, warranty in some markets is 10 years on battery and drivetrain. However, NACS has a huge issue - it's on the wrong side, so charging at Tesla chargers is very inconvenient - you basically have to take 2 car spots to charge it. This is really stupid on Hyundai account - as they knew perfectly that Tesla has chargers on drivers side, not passengers. yet they still put it on passenger side.

 

That is my thinking also. The 9 is big, spacy and good battery size/range-wise. I don't want an RV, that's too much, but something big enough to pull into day camp and sleep, rest on long trips.

I've heard about the bad location of the charge port on the car. I've run into that with my 5 when I tried using Tesla charger (I have the adapter that Hyundai shipped to me). That is so annoying! What a terrible placement.

They should put the port in the front middle (like with the Leaf) or the same side as Tesla cars.

 

The Ioniq 9 is already the 2026 MY now (it was at launch).

As the 2025 Ioniq 5 was already a major refresh there may be little refreshed in the 2026 MY.

Edit: I should add I did retire 2 months ago and we also plan some long road trips!

Currently we own a 2023 Ioniq 5 SEL AWD and lease a 2025 Ioniq 6 SEL RWD. Like @tvl-svl we keep cars a long time, our 2023 Ioniq 5 replaced a 2003 Nissan Murano.

When the Ioniq 6 lease runs out in 2027 we will evaluate our options, but the current plan is to keep the Ioniq 5 for 10+ years and decide if we need a second vehicle at that point.

 

We traded our '24 Ioniq 5 SEL for a '25 Limited because the improvements were irresistible and the lease terms on the new one were just too good to pass up. I think you'll like the improvements.

there are a few things that I like in the 2025 MY, such as the Tesla J1772 charge port,

You can click the three little dots at the top right corner of your post and edit that typo. I assume you meant "NACS" port. since Tesla port and J1772 port are totally different. (I end up editing about half my posts after seeing them the next day and finding all my typos. LOL!)

We like this car so much, I'm planning to buy it at the end of the lease.

 

We traded our '24 Ioniq 5 SEL for a '25 Limited because the improvements were irresistible and the lease terms on the new one were just too good to pass up. I think you'll like the improvements.


You can click the three little dots at the top right corner of your post and edit that typo. I assume you meant "NACS" port. since Tesla port and J1772 port are totally different. (I end up editing about half my posts after seeing them the next day and finding all my typos. LOL!)

We like this car so much, I'm planning to buy it at the end of the lease.

Thank you! Fixed the typo. I knew what the differences were, but I kept using the wrong name. LOL.

 

WRT to charging port being in the wrong location, I would argue it is merely a problem because Tesla over engineered their network to be exclusive to their own cars. As V4 chargers roll out, the port location isn't relevant anymore. As more NACS equipped cars arrive, the networks will respond, and frankly, until true V4 Tesla sites are available (with 1000V backend equipment), it isn't the best option anyway.

I looked at Ioniq 9 while at the dealer for repairs recently, I was expecting it to be far larger. Sure, bigger than I5 or I6, but not absurdly larger like an Escalade or Expedition. I don't think the extra size would be helpful for the majority of our needs, in fact I think the I6 is too big for around town stuff, and decent for road trips. My days of sleeping in cars are over, I will take a hotel over roughing it.

I think 2026 models of I5 and I6 may not be available before end of year. I recall 2025 I6 and I5 were not available till Jan/Feb of 2025.

 

I think 2026 models of I5 and I6 may not be available before end of year. I recall 2025 I6 and I5 were not available till Jan/Feb of 2025.

It was getting ridiculous how early in the previous year they've been releasing the new models. My 2022 Bolt EUV was built in June of 2021. Not sure when it hit the dealer's lot since it waited till September, 2022 for its new recall battery. I've seen other cars that came out even earlier but can't recall specifics right now.