Hyundai’s Second EV For India After Kona Could Be A Small SUV

hyundai compact suv eletcric
Representational

Hyundai is planning to introduce its first EV product Kona next year in India and the second EV could be a small SUV

India is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, but the EV market is not yet flourished and one of the reasons could be lack of infrastructure along with high price tag as batteries for EV are expensive to manufacture. The upcoming FAME scheme 2.0 will help government and manufactures to attract more customers.

Hyundai India is going to be one of the first manufacturers to introduce a full-blown EV to India and the company is planning to launch Kona EV by the middle of next year in India. YK Koo, HMIL Managing Director and CEO confirmed that the Kona will come to India via CKD route and the company is not looking for volumes with this model.

The company want to learn how the market reacts to Kona EV and all these things will put into the development of the next model as they are taking a top to down approach. When asked about second EV product for India Koo said that they will review both sedan and SUV body styles and the latter is expected to get a green light from management.

Even though Hyundai has lots of hybrid models in global markets, the company won’t introduce them in India as the government is focusing on EV and not offering many incentives or a tax cut for these models, which is why they decided to introduce Kona EV. If required, the company will introduce Hybrid technology also.

Hyundai-Micro-SUV

Tata Motors is also planning to introduce EV variant of Tigor in India as they already manufacturer the model for government officials, while Mahindra is currently working on new EV models and it is expected to offer better range and performance than their current products. The government is also expected to cut down the tax on EV models to promote sales.

Maruti Suzuki is India’s largest car manufacturer in volumes and the company recently commenced testing of Wagon R EV in India, which is expected to be launched in 2020. Hyundai might also introduce a small EV hatchback to take on Wagon R EV, but the company hasn’t given more details about it.

SOURCEsource