What’s next?
Hyundai and Kia aren’t resting on their laurels
DESPITE all of this progress, there’s no point in showing any complacency, which is why neither Hyundai nor Kia is showing any sign of easing off any time soon. Hyundai will soon venture into a territory that currently has few rivals: the seven-seat electric SUV.
Appropriately titled the Ioniq 7, the new model will draw inspiration from the Seven Concept first shown at the LA Motor Show last year. In other words, expect an imposing front end featuring Ioniq 5-style pixel-effect lighting, but as our exclusive image shows (below), it will take on a much straighter roofline than the concept towards the rear in order to house all seven occupants in space and comfort. Although Mercedes makes the seven-seat EQB, it’s much smaller, so Tesla’s Model X will be the closest rival when the 7 goes on sale in 2024.
Hyundai’s ambition to grow the reputation of its high-performance N brand will soon expand into the guise of full electrification, too. The Ioniq 5 is set to get the N treatment and we’ve already spied development prototypes being put through their paces, so we could see the finished article before the end of the year. It’ll become the fastest Hyundai road car ever built, by some margin. Expect a dual-motor, four-wheel-drive set-up with somewhere in the region of 577bhp, delivering a 0-62mph time of around 3.5 seconds.
At the smaller end of the EV scale, Kia looks set to take on the Mercedes EQA with the upcoming EV4 – one of an impressive 14 new EVs due to be released by the brand before 2027.
It’ll ride on a shortened version of the E-GMP platform used by the EV6 and will therefore be able to access the similar motor and battery configurations. That means the potential for a 77.4kWh battery and more than 300 miles on a single charge.
With these, and many more new models on the horizon, the futures of both brands look extremely promising.