In 2019 Hyundai Motor Group sold 86,434 battery electric vehicles (BEV), topping the likes of Volkswagen, which sold 73,278 BEVs during the same time period.
Those numbers are far behind the 367,500 electric vehicles Tesla was able to deliver in 2019, and even further behind the 500,000 they hope to deliver this year.
Since it first launched the Model S in 2012, Tesla has so far been able to stay at the front of the EV game. What has kept it there is its continued advancement in battery and software technology, which the CEO of Audi says has given Tesla at least a 2-year lead over the rest of the auto industry.
To avoid falling further behind Tesla, Hyundai is accelerating their EV plans by dedicating one production line in 2021, and a second production line in 2024 solely to battery electric vehicles (via Reuters).
This latest news follows the story Drive Tesla told you last week of the leader of Hyundai, Euisun Chung, saying he expects to sell 1 million EVs by 2025.
To sell that many EVs, you are going to need a lot of batteries. Chung reportedly held a series of meetings during May in an effort to secure EV batteries with major manufacturers like Samsung, SK Group, and LG Chem, which currently supplies batteries for Giga Shanghai.
