Farewell to the Hyundai IONIQ. The forerunner of maximum efficiency in the Korean brand’s range is facing its last weeks on the market, culminating a successful commercial life cycle during the six years it has been on sale. Hyundai has already set a date for the cessation of production of this model.
Hyundai surprised at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show with a bet that had only one goal, to dethrone the Toyota Prius or try to knock it down from the top of the sales rankings drawer. Like the Japanese the south koreans raised a model with a more aerodynamic design -its drag coefficient is only 0.24x- which was out of the aesthetic line of the rest of the options in the range, also standing out for a specific offer of sustainable mobility mechanics.
The first version to be released was the Hyundai IONIQ Hybrid and just a few months later came the IONIQ Electric -July 2016- and the plug-in hybrid in February 2017. A range that has reached the end of its life on the market, as the manufacturer has already publicly confirmed. The manufacturer has announced the cessation of production of the three variants of the IONIQ that is produced at the central plant in Ulsan, in South Korea, from the next month of July, ending the era.
The Hyundai IONIQ leaves the market in favor of the IONIQ 6
According to the manufacturer, the decision to cease production of the IONIQ affects everyoneso the latest units of the IONIQ, available with three electrified technologies –HEV, PHEV Y BEV– they are already rolling off the assembly lines and reaching dealerships, even a few months after production ceased until stock lasts.
Hyundai IONIQ has been a model with a very important meaning for Hyundai, managing to conquer more than 135,692 units on the European continent between the end of 2016 and December 2021keeping during the six years for sale the five stars in Euro NCAP safety tests. But also because it has been the one that has paved the way for the new generation of electrified models that are currently offered, and especially for the implementation of the latest batch of electric ones.
Hyundai has pointed out that this exit from the market was scheduled for a long time, pointing to the changing demands of customers, but it also has a lot to do with another no less important factor. And it is that the second electric model of the new range of electric cars is ready to debut, the new IONIQ 6. A sedan larger than the outgoing model that will occupy the space of segment D where the firm has no representation with this sedan format and a sportier character, and that It will hit the market in 2023 with a maximum autonomy of up to 515 kilometers.