The Korean auto manufacturer Hyundai is planning to release an all-electric vehicle with a single-charge range of 250 miles by the end of the decade, according to recent reports.
The news originates with comments made by Hyundai executive Ahn Byung-ki in an interview with Automotive News, so is likely to be quite solid. Interestingly, the company executive also commented that, while electric vehicle (EV) technology development has been relatively steady over the past 6 years, the next 2 years are likely to see accelerated development.
Hyundai will of course be releasing a fairly compelling all-electric vehicle later this year in the US — the all-electric version of the Ioniq, which will possess a single-charge range of 110 miles. The “compelling” bit is of course that the pricing is expected to be fairly reasonable.
Autoblog in its coverage expounds on the connection between the electric Ioniq and the unnamed 250-mile EV, noting that, after the Ioniq, “Hyundai and its Kia and Genesis sister companies may develop a 200-mile range EV for 2018, and then that 250-mile-range car for 2020. Byung-ki isn’t concerned that the Ioniq will quickly be outdated because the longer-range vehicles will also be priced higher. The Hyundai executive also said the company had no plans to take on Tesla Motors in the luxury EV market.”
Positioning itself as a provider of lower-cost, “affordable” EVs is likely a good strategy for the company, as Tesla has more or less revealed that it won’t be developing an EV cheaper than the Model 3 anytime soon.
Via CleanTechnica
EPA or NEDC? Because there’s a big difference between the two (NEDC about +50% more inflated numbers). EPA numbers are a lot more realistic.
50% is probably too high. At least I’ve checked for the LEAF (my own car) and the NEDC numbers are about 40% higher than EPA.
The reality is that range varies a lot. Even for ICE technology the range easily varies by 100% – more if you design the circumstances – in different real world scenarios. Highway speeds in headwind on wet winter roads in low temperatures simply require a lot more energy than the reverse set of conditions!
That said, I agree that EPA range is much closer to the sort of numbers people will typically experience. NEDC was designed to give comparable relative numbers, not representative numbers. So if one car has a higher NEDC range it should reliably have a higher real world range as well, just not the one reported…! Unlike EPA range it is determined in lab conditions. This was seen as a strength because it means repeatability and 100% control over all relevant parameters. But it also means NEDC is more vulnerable to “gaming” where a vehicle is optimized for test conditions – even when at the expense of real-world efficiency.
I interpreted this as an EPA range simply because it appears unbelieavably defensive to plan for 250 miles NEDC by 2020.
It is my understanding that both companies are going to offer make the switch over to the SAE Standard Combo nozzle in the US
Yes, Hyundai is switching to CCS (including the sister Kia brand). And so is PSA (Peugot & Citroën).
Currently it seems to be only Nissan left with CHAdeMO. I personally don’t see a future for it, and that’s a good thing. CCS is no better, arguably worse, from a technical point of view, but the more important thing is to get a de facto standard established and stop wasting resources on duplicating hardware and software. One standard means lower prices and more charging points for the same investment.
I’m not really impressed. Four years after the Bolt they will introduce a new model with perhaps 20% more range (the Bolt, though often quoted at 200 miles EPA, is only known to get “200+”; if it is equally efficient as the six year old LEAF it should get 214 miles EPA from 60 kWh).
On the other hand, if the price is right… 250 miles is sufficient that many people will make virtually no sacrifices and gain all the benefits of an EV. Perhaps by 2020 competitive advantage will be as much or more about price than range. So it’s too soon to completely dismiss this as another irrelevant EV from Hyundai (like their imminently arriving IONIQ, which is just not even trying).