Hyundai has made it clear that its main focus when it comes to green means of propulsion are hydrogen fuel-cells, which they are currently perfecting and improving, so that the system will one day become viable for a reasonably-priced road car.
However, if they want to please regulators in California, where the law states that manufacturers must have some EVs in their lineup, they may be forced to make a battery-powered all-electric of their own.
Fiat was faced with the same situation, and they too were forced to make an electric vehicle, which materialized into the 500e. Hyundai already has such a vehicle in its local Korean lineup, called the BlueOn – it is basically an i10 with no gas engine. It has a range of less than 90 miles (144 km), top speed of 80 mph (128 km/h) and a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) sprint time of 13.1 seconds.
The Detroit Bureau quotes Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik, who said: “Our primary zero-emission vehicle focus is fuel cell right now, but we will certainly field a BEV at some point.” This makes official, but the BlueOn may not be the car they will want to sell, as the all-important numbers wouldn’t necessarily put it at the front of the pack.
By Andrei Nedelea
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