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As Mike O'Brien, vice president of Corporate and Product Planning, Hyundai Motor
America, has it, when it comes to "green" vehicles—meaning seriously electrified
vehicles, be they gas-electric hybrids, plug-in gas-electric hybrids, or fully electric
vehicles (EV)—the real metric needs to be efficiency.
While that might seem to be the case given the nature of the vehicles—which
generally have miles-per-gallon numbers that leave non-electrified vehicles
gasping—and the nature of the people who often buy these cars and crossovers—
who are oriented toward reducing the amount of fuel used (and if they've opted
for the EV, the amount of liquid fuel is, of course, zero)—that it should go without
saying that efficiency is the thing, O'Brien disagrees. Especially, he suggests, when
this comes to EVs which, he says, are suffering from a perception that was born
in the early days of the vehicles, when batteries weren't all that capable and the
availability of fast-charging stations was pretty much nil and so people began
to focus almost entirely on range, which gave rise to the phenomenon of "range
anxiety," which is still something of a malady, or at least so it seems to be, given the
advertising messages that talk about EVs.
"The market awareness," O'Brien says, "is of old EVs." When batteries were limited
and fast-chargers were few and too far in between.
WHAT'S NEW
The Hyundai Ioniq Electric is a new EV. It features a 28-kWh lithium-ion polymer
battery that provides an estimated driving range of 124 miles and an electric motor
that produces up to 88 kW (a.k.a., 118 hp) and 218 lb-ft of torque.
The Ioniq Electric has an EPA-estimated 136 MPGe rating—which makes it the
most efficient EV out there. That is, the 60-amp version of the BMW i3 has an MPGe
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AD&P; ∕ APRIL 2017
HYUNDAI
The Ioniq Electric is powered
by an 88-kW permanent
magnet electric motor; this
translates to 118 hp. The
transmission is a single-gear
reduction type. There is a
28-kWh lithium polymer
battery. It is rated at 136
MPGe and has a range of
approximately 124 miles.
The Ioniq Electric—like the
Hybrid and the Plug-in
models—has a coefficient of
drag of 0.24. Contributors
include front wheel air
curtains, rear spoiler and
diffuser and a bottom cover.