The car’s interior has also been shown for the first time. It will be unveiled in Korea in January and then appear at the Geneva and NY motor shows in March.
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The Hyundai Ioniq is likely to go on sale in the United Kingdom in September 2016 in electric and hybrid guises, with the plug-in hybrid following on at a later date.
The full IONIQ range will feature a choice of electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid powertrains, a world first for a single model. That puts it in the same league as Toyota Motor Corp.’s 2015 year Prius, which clocks in at 21 km/l under South Korea standards.
“Our hybrid is a better fit for American driving situations”, Yang Woong-chul, Hyundai’s global R&D chief told Automotive News. By comparison, the new Prius pairs a 72kW/142Nm 1.8-litre petrol engine with a 53kW electric motor.
The IONIQ is built on a chassis created specifically to carry three efficient and ultra-low emission powertrains.
The energy storage is also mounted low to keep the centre of gravity in the right place for decent dynamics, and proper multi-link rear suspension should benefit both ride and handling.
“The company will step up its green auto push with its new green vehicle model Ioniq to become the first mover in the segment”, said Jung Rak, a vice president at Hyundai Motor who leads the Ioniq project.
Alongside this, the Lithium Ion Polymer Battery delivers outstanding charge and discharge performance, optimizing output from the high voltage motor and allowing for rapid regeneration. No official economy figures have been revealed, however. At its core, there’s the 1.6-liter Kappa GDi engine developed exclusively for Hyundai’s hybrid engines.
The latest Prius has not been launched in Korea, but Mr Lee said the Ioniq would beat it for fuel economy in the US and South Korea.
That, combined with the immediate torque of electric propulsion, the car’s lightweight construction and what Hyundai claims is “class-leading” aerodynamic performance should be enough for the Ioniq to be entertaining as well as environmentally friendly.
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The smooth, elegant and uncluttered design theme continues inside the IONIQ as its futuristic perspective draws on the car’s hybrid credentials.
