Hyundai & Kia Most Likely to Fill “Tesla Model C” Hole — Readers Chime In!

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Earlier immediately, I ran with an thought somebody on our staff proposed: I explored the query of which automaker would produce the “Model 2/C” if it’s true Tesla isn’t going ahead with this product. Who’s most certainly to provide a really excessive promoting, reasonably priced electrical automobile globally that’s mainly a step (and $10,000) under the Tesla Mannequin 3?

It was a enjoyable query to discover, and I thought I did a pretty decent jobhowever apparently I failed. I discussed BYD, Geely, Zeekr, NIO, Xpeng, Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, BMW, and Audi. However I didn’t think about Hyundai/Kia. Admittedly, I do suppose that’s a little bit of a fail, as a result of Hyundai/Kia would possibly properly be the #1 risk — I’ll get to why in a number of moments, however let’s first see a number of the critiques.

“Why not Hyundai / Kia? They will have a plant up in Georgia around the end of this year with capacity for 300k EV’s,” dbr2 writes.

“Yea, came to post the same. Ignoring Hyundai and Kia in this article is a huge oversight,” Johnny5 added.

Even fellow author Steve Hanley chimed in: “I have one word for you Zachary. Hyundai/Kia. Well, technically that is two words but you get my drift.”

One other fellow author, Juan Diego, got here to the desk with somewhat extra nuance, or maybe you can say a critique of the premise. He argued that completely different manufacturers and fashions would fill that gap in numerous areas. For USA and Canada, he wrote, “I think Hyundai/Kia has the lead here. I have high expectations for the Kia EV3 achieving in late 2024 at least part of what Tesla was aiming for with its model. However, Kia lacks the amazing social media presence of Tesla: I would be certain the Model 2 would sell more than the Model 3 in the US, I’m not sure this will be the case for the Kia EV3, and in that case we will have to wait for the Ultium Bolt and whatever comes out of Ford’s new team to fill that niche.” Juan Diego highlighted Renault and Citroën for Europe, and BYD for China.

I don’t know why I ignored the Hyundai–Kia collaboration in my preliminary thought experiment and article, however I agree that it is perhaps the most certainly candidate. Right here’s a listing of explanation why:

1. Hyundai & Kia do someway straddle the road between mass market and premium a bit like Tesla does, particularly relating to EVs. They was once seen as simply low-cost finances manufacturers after they broke into the US market within the ’90s, however they’ve advanced into having some sort of premium aura someway. Perhaps I’m imagining this, however I don’t suppose so.
2. Hyundai Motor Group can also be the third-largest automaker in the world! It has the potential, the manufacturing capability, and the expertise to provide a really excessive promoting new mannequin globally. And it has its toes in markets everywhere in the world. It additionally doesn’t face any of obstacles Chinese language EV corporations are going through entering into the foremost markets of North America and Europe.
3. Hyundai & Kia have produced a number of the best, most engaging, and best-value-for-money electrical automobiles on the planet for a number of years now. As a testomony to that, the Hyundai IONIQ 6 just recently won our 2023 CleanTechnica Car of the Year award. The corporate is actually extra succesful than most at designing and producing a mass-market mannequin that’s engaging in addition to reasonably priced.

That stated …

1. Hyundai and Kia have seemingly by no means pushed very exhausting to provide excessive volumes of the electrical automobiles they’ve produced, by no means actually main in that regard. They’ve appeared extra content material to “play it safe” and never stick their necks on the market on EVs.
2. As proof of that, there wasn’t a Hyundai or Kia model in the global top 20 in 2023. Importantly, each mannequin was from a Chinese language automaker or Tesla aside from the Volkswagen ID.4 at #12 and Volkswagen ID.3 at #15. (Maybe Volkswagen ought to actually be the highest consideration for an automaker that may fill the outlet left by Tesla if the Mannequin C is left on the drafting board.)
3. As one commenter additionally famous, “Because even the little Kia Niro costs more than a Tesla Model 3.” And yet one more commenter added, “Unfortunately, Hyundai / Kia sell through dealerships, so after their ‘market adjustments’, mandatory ‘protection packages’, fees, and creative financing charges, they will make sure that nothing leaves their lot for less than $35k, no matter what the MSRP is.” These are good factors. Although, I believe the issues of worth and worth for the cash might be solved by aiming a lot larger and attaining better economies of scale with a lot larger manufacturing volumes. That stated, we’ve seen how some legacy automakers have tried to scale up a lot faster and have seemingly failed. Ford involves thoughts. Nonetheless, gradual and regular typically wins the race, and, with regular however critical effort, Hyundai and Kia might obtain what no legacy automaker has achieved earlier than.

I don’t know. I actually travel on it. However virtually talking, I hope that we’ll see Hyundai and Kia deliver far more fashionable electrical automobiles to the market within the subsequent few years. I hope they’ll proceed to drive down EV costs and be prepared and able to promote actually mass-market ones quickly. It’s not sufficient to design and develop nice EVs. We want Hyundai and Kia to plan large scale-up of manufacturing in an effort to profit from economies of scale, drive down costs, and attain the heights anticipated of a considerably cheaper Tesla.

I believe I’ve coated all the important thing angles of this dialogue relating to Hyundai and Kia, however chime in down under in the event you really feel compelled to elaborate on any of those factors or present your individual tackle these manufacturers and their electrical automobile choices.