Hey, It Worked! Hyundai Stock Soars After Ioniq Brand Announcement

Maybe established automakers can impress investors with electric promises, after all. Following Hyundai’s announcement that it will turn the Ioniq nameplate into an electric vehicle brand encompassing several models, the company’s stock lit the afterburners, achieving its best share price showing since 2017.

Lofty electric ambitions aren’t a sure-fire way to juice a stock, as Ford has shown year after painful year, but they can achieve results.

After its previous close of 147,000 won, share prices on the Korea Exchange (KRX) briefly hit 172,500 won Monday, with the company’s stock up 15.6 percent at last count. Sister company Kia Motors enjoyed some of Hyundai’s cast-offs, with its stock rising nearly 10 percent.

Investors no doubt believe the range of Ioniq models, each riding atop a new modular electric vehicle platform, will have contemporaries in the Kia stable. Sharing is caring.

“With the launch of a new EV family brand, shares of Hyundai Motor are rallying today, reflecting investors’ hope that the auto industry will outperform compared to other industries,” SK Securities analyst Kwon Soon-woo told Reuters.

In the U.S., electric vehicle startups like Nikola have seen their valuation soar after announcing a competitive electric vehicle, even if said vehicle is years from production. Now fairly established itself (and somehow profitable during the second quarter of this year), Tesla’s stock has the strength of a team of oxen on a cocaine bender. “Legacy” automakers Ford and General Motors, despite having the manufacturing might and cash needed to turn blueprint into reality, seldom see their own green vehicle ambitions translate into Wall Street enthusiasm.

By 2024, Hyundai aims to launch three new electric products under the Ioniq banner: a midsize SUV, a sedan, and a large SUV, each carrying a name currently associated with a compact hatchback model offered in EV, hybrid, and PHEV guises. The first vehicle, the Ioniq 5 midsizer, will appear early next year.

By 2025, Hyundai also wants a 10-percent slice of the world’s electric vehicle market. Music to investors’ ears, apparently.

[Image: Hyundai]