Hyundai wants to fill the needs of EV drivers on a budget. The automaker is developing a purely electric minicar, although it will take a while for the EV to be available, as reported by Automotive News.
With European lawmakers making increasingly strict laws on emissions, a massive EV demand boost is imminent. Hyundai wants to cash in by offering an affordable small car.
Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, marketing chief of Hyundai Motor Europe, revealed the car would be priced at around 20,000 euros, or around $26,000 CAD/$20,000 USD. However, he added that such an affordable car is difficult to make and sell because of the challenges of designing small electric vehicles.
Hofmann also said Hyundai is on track to launch 11 more EVs in Europe by 2030. They will join the Ioniq 5 and the Ioniq 6 sedan it recently unveiled. The latter will start selling in Europe by the end of this year. The Ioniq 5 was named World Car of the Year by World Car Awards.
Hyundai is already working on the Ioniq 7, and while the large SUV is primarily for the US market, European EV drivers will also be able to buy it.
Hyundai’s EV market share in Europe is growing, as reflected in sales figures for H1 2022, with an 8.2 percent increase year-on-year even though the market shrank 14 percent. The share of EVs in Hyundai’s total sales was 16 percent.
Volkswagen is also making a minicar across its brands with an estimating starting price in the same range as Hyundai’s.
