AFTER what Hyundai Australia chief working officer John Kett described as a “difficult 12 months when provide points noticed us drop to quantity 5 in Australia,” the model is aiming up for 2023 and past with one other rash of recent or refreshed ‘enjoyable to drive’ fashions, extra zero-emission automobiles and totally linked vehicles.
“We’d have been quantity three this 12 months had it not been for provide points,” Mr Kett stated on the Australian launch of the Santa Fe hybrid, the primary petrol-electric SUV in Hyundai’s native line-up.
“Our scenario this 12 months wasn’t ultimate however as issues at the moment are altering, we intend on placing a give attention to know-how, enjoyable to drive automobiles and delight of possession in our plan to introduce 17 new fashions within the subsequent 19 months.
“Hyundai is transitioning, always refreshing and we are going to proceed to decarbonise our fleet transferring to a completely ZEV (zero-emission car) line-up by 2045.”
“Over the following two years Hyundai will launch six zero-emission automobiles that may bolster our EV credentials.”
Whereas all this unfolds, the corporate is aiming to have a completely ‘linked automobile’ line-up in Australia inside two years via the smartphone app-driven Bluelink telematics know-how that debuted on the Palisade giant SUV earlier this 12 months.
Hyundai Australia product planning supervisor Jonathan Lam stated Bluelink opens a whole lot of know-how doorways for Hyundai house owners however that the corporate had no plans to maneuver into paid subscriptions as Toyota has completed with its linked providers suite.
“We’re watching carefully what occurs with different manufacturers concerning subscription providers however at this level they don’t seem to be into account,” he stated.
“Our focus with Bluelink is to supply extra options to our prospects, not begin charging them month-to-month charges, ” he stated.
GoAuto was informed the hybrid could be the final variant of the fourth-generation Santa Fe, which arrived again in 2018 and is due for substitute in 2024.
On the launch occasion, members of Hyundai Australia’s product planning group informed GoAuto the new-generation mannequin could be constructed on an inner combustion engine platform and never the E-GMP devoted EV structure that’s being more and more utilised by Hyundai.
When requested the perennial query a few potential Hyundai one-tonne body-on-frame ute, the product planners grew to become circumspect.
A spokesperson stated: “What spec ought to we (Hyundai) construct by way of powertrain and what dimension?” earlier than speculating on instructions together with “a big ute the scale of a big F-150 fashion US pick-up and a one-tonner as we’re accustomed to right here Down Beneath and diesel, petrol, electrical or hybrid”.
Neither description matches that of Hyundai’s North American market Santa Cruz ute, which shares a unibody platform with the Tucson and Santa Fe SUVs, in addition to the Sonata sedan.
“There’s an enormous marketplace for body-on-frame utes that Hyundai hasn’t tapped into and we might like to have one however we’re concentrating on different areas in the mean time,” the spokesperson stated, maybe alluding to the Santa Cruz.
When requested concerning the probability of a low-cost (sub-$30,000) EV, the spokesman stated, “We’re taking a look at a variety of choices and have a purchaser profile in thoughts for such a automobile that will be metropolis pleasant (small, straightforward to park, restricted vary, fast recharge).
In an announcement, Hyundai confirmed in July that it already has below growth an EV model of the i10 offered in Europe that might probably be tailored for right-hand drive markets.
“Hyundai will produce an inexpensive EV for Europe probably based mostly on the i10 gentle hatch,” the assertion stated.
A tiddler-size Hyundai EV based mostly on the present i10 would reduce prices by repurposing elements from the just lately discontinued Ioniq electrical mannequin.
This might imply a single 100kW/295Nm electrical motor driving the entrance wheels and sourcing energy from a 38kWh lithium-ion battery that’s rechargeable in as little as 54 minutes utilizing a 100kW DC fast-charger.
In the meantime, GoAuto has unearthed a level of pushback from car-makers, together with Hyundai, over the ACT’s proposed inner combustion engine ban by 2035.
The ACT authorities’s ambitions are for 80 to 90 per cent of recent gentle automobiles offered by 2030 to be zero-emission fashions, with a stricter ban anticipated to come back into pressure 5 years later.
Our supply stated Hyundai and others have personnel based mostly in Canberra lobbying politicians regarding the ban, which they are saying isn’t doable within the present timescale.
