Hyundai: Ioniq Has Right Formula to Beat Green-Car Doldrums

GOLETA, CA – Hyundai believes it has hit upon the right formula to make its new Ioniq green-car lineup alluring, especially to Millennials, even though $2-a-gallon gasoline and the growth of CUVs relegated hybrids, plug-in hybrids and EVs to a 2.8% U.S. market share last year.

A key ingredient in its formula is pricing, which raised eyebrows last week due to how much the automaker is undercutting the competition.

The Ioniq hybrid, on sale now in the U.S., begins at $22,200. That’s $2,485 less than a base-grade ’17 Toyota Prius, while the Ioniq EV, due in California in April, starts at $29,500, some $1,180 below the entry price of a ’17 Nissan Leaf.

“Value-for-the-money is a space that Hyundai owns here in the U.S. market,” John Shon, manager-product planning for Hyundai Motor America, says at an Ioniq media preview here. “This is something that customers have come to expect from us on all our new models.” And the Ioniq hybrid and electric pricing was set with that reputation in mind, he says.

“We’re really trying to attack the perception that electrified vehicles cost more to own and cost more to purchase,” adds Mike O’Brien, vice president-product, corporate and digital planning for HMA.

Those reasons often are cited by consumers in surveys as to why they won’t buy an electrified vehicle, O’Brien says. Perceived poor performance and small size are other reasons people say they reject electrified models, which encapsulates hybrids, plug-in hybrids and EVs.

Here, too, is where Hyundai claims advantages over the competition, with a bigger interior volume for the Ioniq hybrid and EV compared with respective competitors the Prius, platform-mate Kia Niro CUV, the Leaf, Chevy Bolt and Ford C-Max.

On performance, Glenn Kim, team leader for eco-technology at Hyundai in Korea, says his bosses told him not to skimp while achieving a “world’s best fuel economy” for the Ioniq.

“The engineers, including me, called this ‘mission impossible,’” Kim says.

Nevertheless, Hyundai says it was able to give the Ioniq a fun-to-drive character via measures such as an independent rear suspension in the hybrid and PHEV, a “slippery” design that improves aerodynamics, a sport-mode setting with faster acceleration, and weight-cutting aluminum (hood, liftgate, suspension) and advanced-high-strength steel (54% of the body-in-white).

The Ioniq EV, thanks to its low-placed lithium-ion battery pack, has a lower center of gravity than the Volkswagen GTI, Shon says.

The car’s powertrains play a huge role in fuel economy achievements. The Ioniq hybrid’s base Blue grade is rated at 58-mpg (4.1 L/100 km) besting the Prius Two’s 56 mpg (4.2 L/100 km) average.

And while the Ioniq EV doesn’t come close to the new Bolt’s 238-mile (383-km) electric range (Hyundai has said a 200-mile [322-km] range EV is due next year), it does top the Leaf and other non-luxury EVs at 124 miles (200 km).

To achieve the 58-mpg rating, the hybrid uses Hyundai’s Kappa 1.6L 4-cyl., a 2017 Wards 10 Best Engine winner in the Elantra that’s smaller than the Prius’ 1.8L 4-cyl., but pairs to a bigger lithium-ion battery pack, a 1.56-kWh pack vs. the Prius’ .75-kWh pack.

The Ioniq’s 1.6L also matches the 40% thermal efficiency achieved by the Prius’ 1.8L, says Hyundai.

Meanwhile, the EV’s 28-kWh lithium-ion battery pack is smaller than the Leaf’s 30-kWh pack, but more energy dense, with claimed industry-leading cell-energy density of 203 watt hours per kg, giving the Ioniq the 124-mile electric range vs. the Leaf’s 107 miles (172 km).

LG Chem supplies the batteries for the Ioniq EV, as well as an Ioniq plug-in hybrid due this fall in the U.S. Nissan uses Li-ion batteries by its AESC joint venture with NEC.

Given the hybrid and EV’s low pricing and what he sees as no-sacrifice performance, O’Brien says the Ioniq’s true competitors are conventionally powered mass-market compacts such as the Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla and Chevy Cruze.

“We want this car not to be compared so much to other hybrids or plug-in hybrids, but instead we were thinking when this project was started, ‘How do we break through this 3% market share wall?’” he says.

Most green cars sold in the U.S. are purchased by older, wealthy, college-educated buyers, but Hyundai hopes the Ioniq will be the green car that Millennials less flush with cash finally buy. In surveys, many Millennials say they’d like to own a hybrid, PHEV or EV, but few actually pull the trigger, O’Brien notes, due to concerns about size, performance and cost.

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