Kia to Focus on EVs, Hyundai on plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles

Chosun Ilbo. Within the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Kia will focus on electric cars, while Hyundai will work on plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, according to Yang Woong-chul, vice president of the group, during a press briefing at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Under the new move, Kia will manufacture the group’s first high-speed electric vehicles under the project name “TAM”. These are scheduled to hit the market at the end of this year. The nation’s first electric vehicle, BlueOn, developed by the group’s research institute in 2010, will be also be rolled out as a Kia brand later this year.

Hyundai has a technological advantage in producing hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles as it succeeded in independently developing a 115 kW-class stack, a core component for such vehicles. It also operated two ix35 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in Denmark in May on a trial basis.