Hyundai Motor Group is going to release four new second generation electric vehicles that can drive more than 300km with just single charge. It is planning to have this year as a year when they become top three electric vehicle manufacturer in the world through extension of production lines and expansion of product lines.
According to industries on the 7th, Hyundai Motor Group is going to release Hyundai Motor Company‘s ‘next-generation fuel cell electric vehicle (Project name: FE FCEV)’ and ‘KONA EV (OS EV)’ during the first half of this year and Kia Motors’ ‘Niro EV (DE EV)’ ‘next model of Soul EV (SK EV)’ during the second half of this year.
Hyundai Motor Group told its partners that it is expected to sell 32,000 units of these four new electric vehicles this year. It told them that number of sales will rise to 64,000 in 2019 when global sales will take place on full-scale. In order to achieve these goals, Hyundai Motor Group is hurrying to extend its production lines this year. It is planning to be flexible towards number of demands from global electric vehicle markets that are rising rapidly by extending its production lines so that they are able to produce more than 70,000 units of these four electric vehicles.
All of these four electric vehicles are going to be SUVs. Global SUV markets are showing steady growth based on their practicality. Because SUVs have more space and wider inner space than normal sedans, they require major parts such as high-capacity batteries that have large volumes and motors.
Hyundai Motor Company succeeded in internalizing 99% of major parts such as membrane electrodes and metallic separators of its next-generation FCEV that will be released during the first quarter. Its system efficiency is 9% better than current Tucson ix FCEV and it can drive up to 590km (North American standard) that is improved by 38%.
Hyundai Motor Group is planning to divide its lineup of electric vehicles into short-distance electric vehicles and long-distance electric vehicles in the future depending on their mileages. It introduced IONIQ Electric (mileage of 200km) in 2016 and it is going to release three long-distance electric vehicles that can drive up to 400km. It is planning to release Genesis-based high-performance long-distance (more than 500km) electric vehicle in 2021.
Hyundai Motor Group has been releasing new electric vehicle models every year in order to be the top three electric vehicle manufacturer in the world by 2025. Starting with four new electric vehicles this year, it is going to increase number of its electric vehicles up to 14 by 2025. By sharing platforms for electric vehicles, it is also going to optimize energy management, increase density of battery energy, and improve efficiency of electrical power parts.
Hyundai Motor Group is also going to work on popularizing electric buses based on its technical skills in electric vehicle and FCEV. Its third generation battery electric bus called Elec City, which was introduced in May of 2017, is going to be sold officially starting from this year. Elec City can drive more than 300km with its 256kWh battery. Hyundai Motor Group is also going to officially sell its second generation fuel-cell electric bus (mileage of 440km) that was developed last year.
“We will be able to improve competitive price and production efficiency of our new electric vehicles that will be released this year at the same time by sharing major parts that we developed.”
Staff Reporter Jung, Chiyeon | chiyeon@etnews.com