Hyundai Preparing Electric Vehicle for American Market
According to Hyundai America’s CEO John Krafcik, the Korean automaker is planning to bring a battery-powered electric vehicle to the American market in the near future.
Currently Hyundai offers hybrid variants for its Sonata and Elantra models, but doesn’t have a full electric vehicle on the market. It does however, sell the BlueOn EV in South Korea. But regulations might cause Hyundai to push an EV to market faster in America since the state of California will mandate that all major automakers include some form of zero-emissions vehicle in their lineup.
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For the most part, Hyundai is hoping to fill that mandate with its hydrogen fuel-cell Tucson, but the lack of readily-available hydrogen will limit its market viability — at least initially. There’s a good chance that Hyundai could just come out with a “compliance car” that’s only available in California, and that model could very well be the BlueOn since it would be cheap and easy for the Korean automaker to export to the U.S. The problem is, the BlueOn would be comparable to the struggling Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
The Hyundai BlueOn has a range of just under 90 miles on a full charge and has a top speed of around 80 mph. It accelerates to 60 mph from a standstill in 13.1 seconds. It’ll be interesting to see if Hyundai attempts to be competitive in the EV market by building a different model for America.
[Source: The Detroit Bureau]
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Jason Siu began his career in automotive journalism in 2003 with Modified Magazine, a property previously held by VerticalScope. As the West Coast Editor, he played a pivotal role while also extending his expertise to Modified Luxury & Exotics and Modified Mustangs. Beyond his editorial work, Jason authored two notable Cartech books. His tenure at AutoGuide.com saw him immersed in the daily news cycle, yet his passion for hands-on evaluation led him to focus on testing and product reviews, offering well-rounded recommendations to AutoGuide readers. Currently, as the Content Director for VerticalScope, Jason spearheads the content strategy for an array of online publications, a role that has him at the helm of ensuring quality and consistency across the board.
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