The all-electric version of Hyundai’s new Ioniq, with an estimated driving range of 110 miles, launches late this year. That’s around the same time as the Chevrolet Bolt EV with its claimed 200-mile driving range, is scheduled to appear, but Hyundai is hard at work playing catch-up. Byung K. Ahn, director of Hyundai’s Eco-Vehicle Performance Development group, says that the company will launch an EV with at least 200 miles of range by 2018, and a 250-mile EV by 2020.
Ahn also said that the Ioniq won’t be the car to reach these goals. He wouldn’t give any more specifics on these longer-range EVs, but did admit that achieving the 200-mile and 250-mile numbers requires a car with a larger footprint in order to accommodate a bigger battery pack. Improvements in energy density and software mapping can help to a point, but dramatically increasing range essentially hews to the old saying, “there’s no replacement for displacement.” The Ioniq EV uses a 28-kWh battery pack, while the Bolt has a 60-kWh pack and the Tesla Model S offers battery packs ranging from 70 kWh to 90 kWh. We don’t yet know details on the cheaper, smaller Model 3 sedan’s battery-pack options, but Tesla chief Elon Musk did say that the Model 3 would come standard with a driving range of at least 215 miles.
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