Hyundai and Kia aim to shake up the hybrid market

Twinned Korean car giants Hyundai and Kia are both preparing new hybrid and electric vehicles for sale which will form a major challenge to the existing hybrid market leader, Toyota.

Hyundai has begun to reveal some of the technical details of its Ioniq, a purpose-designed hybrid saloon, with which it wants to take on the Toyota Prius. It’s not just a hybrid though, it’s actually three cars in one.

The Ioniq in its most basic form will come as a standard hybrid, featuring a frugal 1.6-litre direct-injection petrol engine, boosted by an electric motor and a battery pack. You can spec that up though to a plug-in hybrid, whose batteries you can charge up and motor around for short distances on electric-only power (Hyundai is staying quiet on range and performance figures so far though, merely saying that the combined petrol/electric power output will be 150hp and that the overall thermal efficiency is a class-best 40 per cent). There’s a third option though - you’ll also be able to buy an all-electric Ioniq, with no petrol engine making this the first single model in which all versions of current electric car technology will be available.

In lieu of any hard figures, Hyundai is boasting about how high tech the Ioniq will be. The Korean car maker claims to have saved around 45 per cent of the body’s weight by using aluminium and high-strength steel, while it’s also touting the Ioniq’s new six-speed DCT dual clutch gearbox, which it says has been especially tuned for hybrid driving. Certainly, it may put the cat amongst Toyota’s pigeons, with continued criticism of Toyota’s insistence of equipping the Prius with a CVT transmission that leads to complaints from motoring hacks that the car drones and groans under acceleration.

Kia Niro

Meanwhile, Kia says it has created an entirely new species of vehicle with its upcoming Niro - a HUV, or Hybrid Utility Vehicle (although quite what Toyota [RAV4 HYBRID] and Ford [ESCAPE HYBRID] make of that claim is quite another matter…) The Niro, which will be launched at the Chicago motor show next month, uses the same 1.6-litre petrol engine and electric motor hybrid setup as the Ioniq, although there is no word yet of either a plugin or an all-electric drivetrain.

Kia is claiming that it will have sub-90g/km Co2 emissions (based on the current New European Driving Cycle regulations) which would make it significantly ‘cleaner’ than the RAV4 hybrid. Kia says that “the styling of the Niro was led by Kia’s design centres in California, USA and Namyang, Korea and incorporates the practicality and aesthetic allure of a compact SUV, with a sleek, aerodynamic body and subtly sculptured surfaces.

Highlighting the raised rear haunches that endow the HUV with an athletic stance, the image also reveals high-mounted LED taillights that complement an uncluttered rear end. The slim character line and rear windows emphasise the car’s sleek profile, while allowing greater room for the Niro’s muscular wheel arches.”