ChargedEVs.com: Hyundai will release an electric sedan in 2016, to be followed later by a sports car and an SUV, company officials told the Korea Times this week.
This seems to represent a change in strategy from 2012, when Hyundai Motor Group announced that its Kia division would focus on pure EVs, while Hyundai would develop PHEV and hydrogen fuel cell models.
“Hyundai’s first pure EV will be a mid-sized sedan,” said an unnamed official. “Equipped with improved batteries, enhanced system management and lighter materials, the upcoming model will weigh about 30 percent less than existing hybrid EVs.”
2015 Sonata Hybrid
Hyundai said that Executive VP Albert Biermann, recently hired from BMW, will be in charge of the design of the new EV models.
LG Chem will supply the batteries for the first electric Hyundai, but the automaker has also agreed to procure batteries from the SK Group.
