Hyundai to develop own EV platform & charging systems

South Korea's Hyundai Motors is making plans to develop its own electric vehicle platform and battery charging systems as part of its push toward clean energy-powered cars.

The announcement of the plans follows October's recall of 77,000 Kona electric cars. Since summer 2019, around a dozen Konas have caught fire. Subsequent investigations discovered the cause was problems with the battery cells.

Hyundai and affiliate Kia Motors say the platform will allow for cost savings and help expand both brands' EV roster. The group has said it is planning to unveil 23 new models of electric vehicle over the next five years, with the aim of selling one million a year by 2025.

Hyundai said that the planned platform will also help cut down the number of components in its EVs by 60% and push up the driving range by 20% to around 500km on a single charge. 

EVs produced on the new platform will also be able to charge up to 80% in 18 minutes, the company added, thus increasing its competitiveness in an ever-busier market.

Read more: BMW to retool German plants for EVs & relocate engine manufacture

Hyundai is following competitors such as Volkswagen, General Motors, and Geely in founding its own dedicated EV platform - the bottom structural framework of a car - so to scale up production.

For many years, Hyundai has received criticism that it has been slow to pick up on new technologies. Last year, however, the company announced a plan to invest $35 billion (€29 billion) to shift away from traditional carmaking and transition towards the new sectors including EVs, driverless cars and hydrogen fuel cells. It plans to spend $9 billion (€7.5 billion) on its push to electrification by 2025.

Automotive companies across the world are funnelling billions of dollars into the improvement of battery tech to cut EV prices and improve safety. In September, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company was aiming to cut the cost of its EV batteries in half and produce more in-house with the goal of cutting the price of its vehicles down to $25,000 (€20,700). 

Read more: Electric vehicle sales triple in 2020 as race to cut emissions continues

While Hyundai has not revealed the amount it plans to spend on the new platform, the FT quoted Lee Hang-koo, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, as estimating that along with the new charging tech, it would cost the group somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion.

Hyundai’s new Ioniq 5 EVs and some Kia models will be made using the new platform, at first in South Korean plants. The automotive group chose LG Chem in May to provide batteries for the EVs built on the new platform.

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