Hyundai wants a 300-mile Genesis EV in 2021, Kona EV next year
It's moving away from hydrogen fuel-cell tech, but not entirely.
Not content to sit on the sidelines forever, Hyundai wants to bring the EV fight to its competitors.
Hyundai plans to put EVs front and center in future strategies for both itself and its luxury-brand sister Genesis, Reuters reports. This marks a shift away from, but not an entire abandonment of, hydrogen fuel cell technology. Hyundai already has a Tucson-based fuel cell crossover available for lease in California.
The first move will be to electrify the Kona subcompact SUV. It'll pack an estimated range of about 240 miles, and it's expected to make its debut in the first half of 2018. Following that, Hyundai will introduce a Genesis EV with a range in excess of 300 miles. Expect that one to arrive in 2021.
Hyundai's other sister brand, Kia , isn't sitting idly by. Kia plans to bring three different plug-in hybrids to market, as well as eight battery-electric and two fuel cell vehicles.
That sounds like a lot of new models, and it is, but it shouldn't break Hyundai's bank. In its plan to expand EV availability, Hyundai will develop a platform dedicated to electric vehicles. With the majority of the complex running bits on a flexible platform, Hyundai and its associated marques can focus on building a whole bunch of bodies under which the batteries will live.
While Hyundai might be giving less attention to fuel cells, they're not entirely off the company's radar. Genesis showed off a hydrogen fuel-cell concept SUV earlier this year, and Hyundai unveiled a fuel cell ute of its own just this week.
Hyundai's first foray into the dedicated-EV market came with the introduction of the Ioniq. This sedan is available in various electrified forms, whether it's a traditional hybrid, a plug-in hybrid or a battery-electric vehicle. We've driven it, and we like it, but some specs (like EV range) lag behind the competition.