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In California, the percentage of sales of a given manufacturer must meet the ZEV stan- dards is 22 percent starting in 2025. This is a ramp up, with the number for model year 2018 being 4.5 percent. Given that aforementioned 2.87 percent, Hyundai, as well as the rest of the OEMs, are going to have to up their game for electrified vehicles. COMING TO BE According to Ki-San Lee, vice president, R&D;, Hyundai Motor Group, the development of what became the Ioniq began in earnest in South Korea in the spring of 2005. The executives at the company recognized that they were way behind companies like Toyota, which had introduced the Prius in 1997. So they set about the development of the platform that would be the Hyundai basis for e-mobility. At the time, he was the director of gasoline engine development. He was given a team of 32 engineers who, he says, "Had no hybrid experience." They didn't start with a set number as a target. Rather, he says, it was about being "the best in fuel economy or efficiency." As is expected, the Ioniq Hybrid and the Plug-in Hybrid have plenty of things in common, though it is worth noting that the fundamental vehicles for all three are the same, and all have an impressive coefficient of drag of just 0.24. THE SETUPS The two hybrids have a 1.6-liter, direct-injected, Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder engine that produces 104 hp and 109 lb-ft of torque. One massive achievement goes to the point of efficiency: the thermal efficiency of the Kappa engine is 40 percent. To put that number into context, know that the thermal efficiency of a typical internal combustion engine in a modern light duty vehicle is on the order of 25 to 30 percent. Both hybrids also have a six-speed double-clutch transmission and it is said to provide best-in-class transfer efficiency through the use of low-friction bearings and low-viscosity transmission oil. Of course, given that most hybrids use continuously variable transmis- sions, the best-in-class claim is probably not as significant as is the fact that the Ioniqs perform more like non-hybrid sedans. But there are differences, too. The Hybrid has a 32-kW (43 hp) electric motor that provides 125 lb-ft of torque. Combined with the engine, the overall system output is 139 hp. The electric motor is connected to a 1.56-kWh lithium-ion polymer battery that's positioned under the rear passenger seat so as not to reduce cargo space in the rear. The big difference with the Plug-in Hybrid is that it has a bigger electric motor—45 kW (60 hp)—and a bigger battery pack—8.9 kWh. This results in an all-electric range of approxi- mately 27 miles. A word about both the motor and the battery, something that translates across all of the models. One of the ways to achieve efficiency—and this is all the more important for elec- trified models, when you're looking to get as much as you possibly can out of the available energy—is to minimize mass. So in the case of the permanent magnet synchronous motors used, they engineered them to be as much as 10 percent thinner than the components typi- cally found in such motors; they're using rectangular-section copper wire so as to maximize the package efficiency. As regards the battery packs, according to Hyundai the lithium-ion polymer pack used in the Ioniqs is 20 percent lighter than non-polymer packs. What's more, the polymer packs can be more readily shaped to meet package constraints. The Ioniq Hybrid is offered in three trim levels: Blue, SEL and Limited. The Blue model 32 COVER STORY