In order to adhere to Beijing’s regulation to ramp up electrified vehicle and light-truck output, Hyundai Motor Co. plans to launch its second and third electric vehicles in China in fourth quarter 2019.
According to a statement from Beijing-Hyundai, Hyundai’s JV with BAIC Motor Group, the battery version of the Encino crossover will be commercially available in October. It will be followed by the battery variant of the Lafesta sedan in December.
The electric Encino and Lafesta EV will have a range of 500 km and 490 km, respectively.
The electric Elantra sedan was the first full electric vehicle by Hyundai in China which went on sale in 2017. The electric versions of the Encino and Lafesta will be produced at Beijing-Hyundai.
Hyundai also launched sales of a plug-in hybrid variant of the Lingdong sedan this week. It is the second plug-in hybrid vehicle for Hyundai in China, following the plug-in version of the Sonata sedan, which arrived in 2018. These plug-in hybrids are also built at Beijing-Hyundai.
In the first seven months of 2019, Beijing-Hyundai’s sales of conventional and electrified vehicles dropped 21 per cent to stand at 324,065, in comparison with the same period of 2018, according to China Passenger Car Alliance.
Since the government has cut down on subsidies on electrified vehicle and is planning to phase it out completely by the end of 2020, the government wants to further push electrified vehicle production over concern of sales drop. More global automakers are expected to team up with local carmakers in near future to accelerate EV output so that they can earn carbon credit points.