Hyundai, Kia, Genesis Brands All Get a New Electric Model: Senior VP

Each brand under the Hyundai Motors umbrella will see an all-new model powered solely by electricity in the next few years, with the lower-rung brands getting them next year.

That’s according to Lee Ki-sang, senior vice president and head of the automaker’s green cars division. While the company is busily crafting an expensive, dedicated electric vehicle platform, those first small SUVs will ride atop existing architecture, he said.

Lee made the product promises during a speech at the Seoul Auto Show, Reuters reports.

The first solely all-electric Hyundai model (unlike the hybrid, plug-in and BEV Ioniq) should launch next year, followed shortly after by a Kia-badged vehicle, Lee said. Both will fall into either the compact or subcompact segment. Genesis plans to launch a plug-in hybrid model in 2019, with a premium all-electric offering scheduled for 2021.

Selling an electric car is hard work (the same goes for hybrids), so Hyundai made sure to wrap that technology with a bodystyle that’s in high demand. With range being a key factor in a customer’s decision to go green, or drill, baby, drill, Lee claims the Hyundai and Kia offerings should top 300 km (186 miles) of driving on a single charge. The compact hatchback Ioniq currently gets 124 miles per charge.

Batteries galore isn’t the only thing worthy of note. Kia has embarked on a fuel-cell vehicle project, following in Hyundai’s footsteps. Still, Lee doesn’t see fuel cells overtaking conventional vehicles or even electrics anytime soon — the executive claims the roll out of refueling infrastructure is simply too slow to make hydrogen-powered driving anything but a long-term plan. In the meantime, he expects to see electric vehicles make up 10 percent of global auto sales by 2025 — a lofty goal that Lee expects Chinese demand will help reach.

[Image: Hyundai