Demand for Hyundai’s latest electric is reaching the Nth degree … as is development.

 THE heat is on for Hyundai’s well-received Ioniq 5 – both in respect to national pick up and international planning.

 While Hyundai New Zealand is reporting quadrupled interest in the car, which it part-attributes to the rise in petrol prices, there are overseas reports of a variant under development by the performance hero N division with considerably more power than the current dual motor flagship.

The website for British magazine AutoExpress says the racer edition is expected to make its debut next year, and has been spied with increasing frequency near Hyundai’s test base, adjacent to Germany’s Nurburgring circuit. 

The site says the edition is widely tipped to get the same dual-motor configuration as 430kW GT edition of Kia’s EV6, which is about to become available here.

 However the website says a senior source close to the project has related that while the two vehicles may well share a powertrain as well as the E-GMP platform, the aim is for them to be very different in dynamic character.

Meantime, Hyundai NZ says petrol price turmoil has doubled the number of Kiwis buying into the line it already has on sale and quadrupled the number of New Zealanders interested in buying electric vehicles. 

 The make’s national general manager Chris Blair says deposits on the NZ Car of the Year have doubled within the past fortnight while visits to the company website have rocketed.

“Orders and inquiries for electric vehicles are as strong as when the Government announced its clean car rebate (last May).

 “Anecdotal feedback from customers ordering cars and asking our dealerships about EV options is that this is a direct response to the increase in petrol prices and global supply uncertainty. 

“Each day quickly fills up with bookings for test drives.”   

Blair says the number of people researching EVs ahead of orders has jumped dramatically. He cites Google Trends revealing a major spike in natiuonal searches for EVs as fuel prices broke the $3 a litre mark.

Hyundai and the Ioniq 5 headed the top five searches last week of New Zealanders looking for “electric cars”.