- South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Group is stepping up its hybrid game.
- All Kia, Hyundai and Genesis combustion models will also get a hybrid.
- A next-generation hybrid system is slated to go into production next year with features like V2L and smart regenerative braking.
Hyundai Motor Group, the parent company behind Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, is kicking things into high gear when it comes to hybrid powertrains. Starting next year, the South Korean automaker wants to double its hybrid portfolio from seven models to 14, executives announced at today's CEO Investor Day event. And some of those hybrids will have interesting tricks up their sleeve.
All three car brands will have a hybrid option for each combustion-powered model and thanks to the company’s next-gen TMED-II powertrain, they will come with user-friendly features such as vehicle-to-load (V2L) and smart regenerative braking, which we’re accustomed to in all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids—but not so much in traditional hybrids.
V2L means users can export power from the car’s high-voltage battery for things like tools or appliances, but it’s unclear right now how Hyundai Motor wants to implement this feature in its future models. The company's current EVs offer this capability and some have been seen powering entire houses during natural disasters, and now it seems poised to extend that to hybrid cars too.
For EVs and PHEVs, the charging port is used to export power through a special adapter, but traditional hybrids don’t have a charging port, so the only logical explanation would be that upcoming Hyundai, Kia and Genesis hybrids will have some sort of integrated inverter that channels electricity to one or more household outlets somewhere in the vehicle, similar to how the Ford F-150 Hybrid offers up to 7.2 kilowatts of exportable power through four 120-volt outlets and one 240-volt outlet.
Hyundai Motor’s second-generation hybrid system will also “significantly improve performance and fuel efficiency compared to the existing system,” according to the automaker.
With all this being said, HMG revised its sales expectations for hybrids and now hopes to sell 1.33 million units worldwide by 2028, an increase of over 40% from the previous year. A significant boost is expected to come from North America, where the carmaker anticipates a surge in demand.
Thus, it plans to increase its hybrid vehicle volume to 690,000 units per year by 2030 with a lot of the heavy lifting being channeled toward Hyundai Motor’s Metaplant factory in Georgia, where hybrids will be built alongside dedicated all-electric models such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and upcoming Ioniq 9 three-row SUV. "This strategy will allow the company to respond swiftly to the North American market, which currently faces a shortage of hybrid supply," CEO Jae Hoon Chang said.
Besides charging ahead on the hybrid front, Hyundai Motor is also moving forward with its plan to expand its EV lineup, as well as working on a new extended-range EV (EREV) which will feature dual-motor electric four-wheel drive and a combustion engine that will act solely as a generator for the high-voltage battery.
