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Hyundai revealed It’s the Ioniq 3, an all-electric compact hatchback for urban driving, designed to be as aerodynamically efficient as possible, but still offer a surprisingly spacious interior — a trick the automaker calls the “Aero Hatch.” The Model 3 aims to bridge the gap between the Hyundai Inster supermini and Ionic 5 Cross.
From the side, the Ioniq 3 has a sleek front fascia that transitions into a roofline that stays straight over the front and rear passengers before descending to merge with the rear spoiler. It is this roofline that increases interior headroom for rear passengers, but also provides a class-leading assumed drag coefficient of 0.263.
The car has the same underpinnings as its sister brand. Kia EV2. Two battery options will provide an expected WLTP range of 344 km (about 214 miles) for the standard range Ioniq 3; The long-range version is supposed to be good for a competitive range of up to 308 miles. The car is built on the group’s Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), and features a 400V architecture to reduce costs, rather than the 800V system found in the Ioniq 5 N, 6 or 9 SUVs. However, this means that if you can find a fast enough DC charge, you can, in theory, boost your charge from 10 to 80 percent in about 29 minutes (AC charging capacity is 22 kW).
That’s good, but it doesn’t fit the new BYD Blade 2.0 battery technology tested by WIRED, Surprisingly permissive Denza Z9 GT To charge its battery in just over 9 minutes from 10 percent. It’s true that the battery technology has been around in a $100,000 “premium” electric car, but it’s coming to BYD’s wider models as well. If BYD succeeds in its plans to provide a charging network to rival Tesla’s Supercharger, buyers will soon expect similar charging times, and 30 minutes will soon feel too long.
I asked Jose Muñoz, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor, whether this new battery technology from BYD interests him, and whether Hyundai — which has long led the EV lineup with an 800-volt architecture — needs to match the performance of the Blade 2.0. “We welcome the challenge,” Muñoz told me. “Every challenge is an opportunity to do better. And I can tell you, lately, we have a lot of opportunities to do better.”
“We are also working on fast charging,” says Muñoz, adding that Hyundai’s success will depend not only on one pioneering technology, but on many. “There are no more elements that the Chinese can offer that we can offer. It’s just a question of how to mix them. Often times, you get stuck on one indicator. I’m an engineer. We always have the example of airplanes: What’s more important in an airplane, altitude or speed? There’s only one answer. You need to achieve both.”