With the Chinese automakers now dominating the domestic automotive market, foreign brands who once had a large stake there are feeling the heat. We recently reported that the Volkswagen Group is no longer the best-selling automaker in China, and we’ve written several stories about how dwindling sales from premium brands such as Porsche, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have deeply affected these companies.
Even GM, once a dominant presence on Chinese soil, recently announced plans to significantly overhaul its electric vehicle (EV) offering to become more competitive. This is all happening at a time when China Inc. is releasing seriously impressive machines that are disrupting the market, models like the Xiaomi SU7. Hyundai, a South-Korean automotive powerhouse, has also decided to release the big guns in China by teasing a mysterious new electric SUV that looks nothing like its North American lineup. Here’s everything we know about it so far.
New Hyundai EV Appears Smaller Than An IONIQ 9
Hyundai released a video on its Chinese media site of a camouflaged electric SUV drifting in the snow, with no model name attached to it and very little information, except that it’s being tested at -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Farenheit). What’s interesting here is that it bares no resemblance with what the automaker currently sells here and in Europe. This SUV also appears to be residing in the midsize segment, but still seems a tad smaller than an IONIQ 9. In many ways, it looks like an electric version of a Hyundai Santa Fe.
But it doesn’t carry over the Santa Fe’s blocky, almost Land Rover-esque design language. This one, rather, gets slimmer, horizontal LED headlights, a slopping roofline and a full LED bar taillight setup that kinks towards the top at each end. It’s a unique look, but then Hyundai does approach automotive design with a chess game mentality. What this effectively means is that the automaker makes sure that none of its vehicles look alike in order to give them their own, distinct styling direction. It’s the complete opposite to, say, Mazda, which prefers a Russian doll approach to design, meaning all vehicles in the lineup follow a singular language.
A Beijing Hyundai Joint Venture
In order for foreign automakers to do business in China, they need to partner up with existing domestic companies. This mysterious electric SUV was therefore a result of the Beijing Hyundai joint venture and will mark the second Hyundai EV sold on Chinese soil, after the high-performance IONIQ 5 N. Up until now, Hyundai has had a small presence in China, with a timid lineup of mostly internal combustion engine (ICE) models, including the Sonata, Elantra, a long-wheelbase version of the Tucson called the Tucson L, the Santa Fe and another SUV called the Mustafa.
- This SUV will probably ride on the E-GMP EV platform.
- It will have an 800-volt charging architecture.
- Will most likely be offered with single and dual-motor configurations.
- Charging performance could exceed 250 kilowatts.
So, what should we expect from this new SUV, and could we get it here? It’s still too early to know, but it’s almost certain that it’ll ride on the Hyundai Group’s E-GMP EV architecture and borrow the IONIQ 9’s 110.3-kilowatt-hour battery, as well as its 800-volt electric architecture. This should allow it to pump up to 250 kilowatts of DC fast-charging power through a 350-kilowatt unit. But China’s EV market has recently exploded with models capable of charging much faster than that, some of them reaching speeds of up to 1,000 kilowatts. So, Hyundai could integrate an all-new, revolutionary charging protocol into this SUV. And we could, eventually, get that technology here.
TopSpeed’s Take
The EV market in China is a highly fascinating one to cover due to how ahead that industry is in terms of battery and charging performance. It’s also interesting to see how legacy carmakers such as Hyundai are taking on this very competitive market. We’ll need to wait until Hyundai reveals this new model to know more about it. It could also take a while before we see its technology come to North America. But this mysterious new vehicle could signal the start of a next-generation EV strategy that would, once again, allow the South-Korean giant to leapfrog the competition. We’ll keep following Hyundai’s progress in the EV space and will report back here once we know more.
Read the full article here
