Hyundai has launched Its Ioniq 3, an integrated electric rear hatch for urban driving designed to be as aerodynamically efficient as possible but still offer a surprisingly roomy interior—a trick the automaker calls the Aero Hatch. 3 is intended to fill the gap between Hyundai’s Inster supermini and Ioniq 5 cross.
In profile, the Ioniq 3 has a sleek front end that transitions into a roofline that sits directly above the front and rear occupants before dropping down to join the rear spoiler. It’s this roofline that maximizes interior room for rear passengers, but also delivers a claimed class-leading coefficient of 0.263.
The car has the same base as its sibling brand, Kia’s EV2. The two battery options will provide an estimated WLTP range of 344 kilometers (about 214 miles) for the Ioniq 3 Standard Range; the Long Range version is claimed to be good for a competitive range of 308 miles. Built on the group’s Electric-Global Module Platform (E-GMP), the car has a 400-volt architecture to keep costs down instead of the 800-volt system of the Ioniq 5 N, 6, or 9 SUVs. Still, this means that if you can get DC charging fast enough, you can, in theory, charge from 10 to 80 percent in about 29 minutes (AC charging capacity is up to 22 kW).
This is fine, but it doesn’t match the new BYD The Blade 2.0 battery technology that WIRED tested, allow surprisingly Denza Z9 GT charging its battery in more than nine minutes from 10 percent. True, that battery technology was in the $100,000 “premium” EV, but it’s coming to BYD’s wider range of models. And if BYD succeeds in its plans to offer a charging network for Tesla’s rival Supercharger, then buyers will soon expect comparable charging times, and 30 minutes will feel like a long time.
I asked José Muñoz, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, if this new battery technology from BYD concerns him, whether Hyundai—long leading the EV pack with 800-volt architecture—needs to match the performance of the Blade 2.0. “We welcome the challenge,” Muñoz tells me. “Every challenge is an opportunity to do better. And I can tell you that, soon, we have many opportunities to do better.”
“We are also working on fast charging,” Muñoz says, adding that Hyundai’s success will be built on not just one leading technology but many. “There are no more features that can be provided by the Chinese that we can provide. It is a matter of how you combine them. Often, you get stuck on one indicator. I am an engineer. And we always have the example of an airplane: What is more important in flight, height or speed? There is only one answer. You need to achieve both.”
