Hyundai is working on a cheaper small electric city car, with prices to be below €20,000 (£17,000). This market is one of the most affordable for customers and yet has been left fairly empty with the transition to electric transportation. Currently in the UK, Volkswagen has one the only electric city cars with the e-up! which costs around £20,000. The upcoming car would likely replace the i10 city car.
The Volkswagen Group has had a history of producing cars in this market, with the original e-up! being launched in 2013. Sister brands Seat and Skoda also launched their own versions of the car with the Seat Mii Electric and the Skoda Citigo iV. These two models have sadly since been discontinued.
However, Hyundai has confirmed that they are working on something in this category. The company has said that a final production-ready version is a while off but Andreas-Christoph Hofmann recently spoke to Automotive News Europe about making city cars powered by electricity. The marketing chief for Europe said:
“Everybody in the industry knows the target of this kind of vehicle is 20,000 euros. [Electric city cars] are tough to sell profitably”
Hyundai also has the new Ioniq 6 coming soon, which is scheduled to be launched in the UK later this year. Prices are expected to be from £45,000 with 379-mile range and 329bhp.
