EV is still of big importance, but Seoul now recognises that it’s not a one size fits all.

JUST when you think you know the future direction of a car brand of high importance to Kiwis … they throw a curve ball.

That’s Hyundai, which at the latest instalment of its annual investor day, just held in South Korea, has announced that the previous plan to cement primarily as a producer of full electric and partially electrified cars - a strategy that has directed how Hyundai NZ has pushed - might now not be so hard and fast.

That doesn’t mean’t abandonment of the battery-involved strategy.

The brand has made dear in its just-held meeting in Seoul that it still intends to fulfil earlier-stated intent to beg producing two million full electric cars a year by 2030.

However, the has just announced it will continue to make combustion-engined vehicles well into the future.

And it is also now looking to delver more strongly with vehicles with ‘EREV’ technology - that’s ‘Extended Range Electric Vehicles’ which Hyundai says will “serve as key bridge to full electrification”.

the best example of an EREV in the NZ market right now isn’t from South Korea. Arguably, it’s the new Nissan X-Trail and Qashqai in their e-Power configuration, in which a combustion engine involves, but purely as a generator of electricity to replenish a battery that in turn feeds electric motors that actually always drive the car.

EREV tech is now being favoured in big markets, notably North America, which Hyundai is no starting to build new products for international consumption. These include the brand’s equivalent of the EV9 large seven-seater electric from subsidiary Kia.

Targets up until 2033 were outlined during Hyundai’s latest ‘Investor Day’ meeting. 

A new mid to long term strategy was revealed as the ‘Hyundai Way’ with Jaehoon Chang, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, stating that: “Under the Hyundai Way, we will respond to the market with agility thanks to Hyundai’s unique flexible response system.” 

Hyundai has previously said in 2022 it would launch 11 all-electric vehicles by 2030, now that number has risen to 21 models by the end of the decade. One of those will be a special treat - a production version of the  N Vision 74 concept (pictured) that caused quite a stir when it unveiled 18 months ago.

N Vision was a fully operable homage to a Giogetto Giugiaro-penned concept that Hyundai commissioned in the early 1970s’, and which informed the Pony coupe in put into production in 1974.

Some have called it a supercar but that’s something of a stretch. However, it was shaped to be a status model with significant performance; more even than it’s current speed demon, the Ioniq 5 N.

The concept featured twin electric motors mounted on the rear axle generating more than 500kW and 900Nm, powered by a 62.4kWh battery. The Ioniq 5 N has 166kW front and 282kW rear, and 350/390Nm, fed by an 84kWh battery.

While the EV push is ramping up, Hyundai says it won’t commit as fully to that tech as it has previously indicated. Now thought from the make iis that it is “actively responding to customer preferences, recognising that while EVs are the future of transportation, not all customers are ready to make the switch”. 

Hence, it will continues to offer a range of powertrains, including international combustion, mild and plug-in hybrids, EVs and, yes, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

The hybrids are back in the spotlight in respect that 14 cars, twice as many as present, will deliver in that guise to supplement these will be ‘EREV’ offerings, refining from 2027.

These, the makes says, will “combine the advantages of internal combustion engines (ICE) and EVs” with the option of four-wheel drive and two-motor applications. 

And like Nissan with e-Power and Mazda with its MX-30, the Hyundai EREV will be powered solely by electricity with the combustion engine only used for battery charging. A range of more than 900 kilometres was also mooted for the EREVs,whose roll-out will at first focus on North America and China.

In respect to hybrid vehicles? Future cars will introduce a next-generation ‘TMED-II system’ - an evolution of the existing hybrid Kiwis know now from the new Santa Fe and the Tucson in its current and soon to update form. 

Hyundai claims the new hybrid technology it still has on the test bench significantly improves “performance and fuel efficiency compared to the existing system”. The first cars with it will come out from next year and deliver V2L (vehicle to load bi-directional electric charging) and regenerative braking.