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After unveiling its new “Hyundai Way” strategy on Wednesday, Hyundai confirmed its highly anticipated three-row electric SUV, the IONIQ 9, will be built in the US. Hyundai also revealed plans to launch EREVs with over 550 miles (900 km) range. Here’s what else you can expect from Hyundai over the next few years.

Introducing the new “Hyundai Way” strategy

“In the era of electrification, Hyundai Motor Company is an unrivaled company that has introduced the entire electric vehicle lineup, from mass-market brands to luxury and high-performance models, the fastest,” Hyundai’s CEO Jang Jae-hoon said at the event.

Hyundai revealed its new mid-to-long-term strategy during its 2024 CEO Investor Day. As part of the new “Hyundai Way,” the company aims to sell 5.55 million vehicles globally by 2030.

The target would represent about 30% growth from last year’s 4.2 million cars sold. To achieve it, Hyundai will produce an additional one million vehicles globally.

“Based on the strengths of the best-in-class technology and challenges for innovation that we have accumulated over the past,” Hyundai will continue to lead the EV market, Jae-hoon added.

With plans to sell two million EVs by 2030, Hyundai expects electric models to account for over a third (36%) of total vehicle sales.

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Hyundai unveils new “Hyundai Way” strategy during 2024 CEO Investor Day (Source: Hyundai Motor Company)

North America, Hyundai’s biggest market, is expected to receive 690,000, while 467,000 units will be sold in Europe.

Like many of its rivals, Hyundai announced plans to introduce more hybrid models in the short term. Hyundai will improve its hybrid system, doubling its lineup from seven to 14.

Hyundai-EREVs-range
Genesis GV70 Electrified (Source: Genesis)

The new hybrid models will include compact, large, and luxury cars, including under the Genesis brand. Hyundai aims to sell 1.33 million hybrids in 2028, a 40% jump from 2023.

Hyundai plans three-row IONIQ 9 SUV, EREVs for the US

Hyundai’s massive new Metaplant America (HMGMA) manufacturing plant in Georgia will be pivotal to the company’s growth plans.

The facility is expected to come online by the end of 2024 and will produce Hyundai’s new EVs, including the updated IONIQ 5 and its first three-row electric SUV, the IONIQ 9.

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Hyundai IONIQ 9 (SEVEN) three-row electric SUV concept (Source: Hyundai)

Hyundai confirmed that the IONIQ 9 and IONIQ 5 will be built alongside hybrid models in the US as it looks to meet growing demand.

As part of its new strategy, Hyundai revealed plans to launch Extended-Range Electrified Vehicles (EREVs). An EREV still has a combustion engine, but the engine generates electricity to power the battery.

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2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N (Source: Hyundai)

Hyundai said it has developed a unique new power system enabling four-wheel drive with two motors.

By using its existing engines and cutting battery capacity by about 30%, Hyundai expects to sell EREVs in a price range similar to plug-in hybrids.

Hyundai-EREVs-range
Hyundai IONIQ 5 (left) and IONIQ 6 (right) at Tesla Supercharger (Source: Hyundai)

Over 550 miles range?

The company said the EREVs will include unique EV-specific driving features and over 550 (900 km) driving range.

Mass production will begin in North America and China in late 2026, with full-scale sales kicking off in 2027. Hyundai and Genesis brands will utilize the tech to launch new mid-size SUVs in North America as it aims to sell over 80,000 units annually.

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2025 Hyundai Santa Fe (Source: Hyundai)

According to recent reports, Hyundai also plans to launch an EREV version of its best-selling Santa Fe SUV and pickup for the US.

Several top-selling electric pickups, including the Tesla Cybertruck and Ford’s F-150 Lightning, were recently spotted near Hyundai’s facility in Korea.

Ahead of its official debut, Hyundai has been testing the IONIQ 9 on US streets (check out the video here).

According to Motor Intelligence, Hyundai Motor Company, including Kia and Genesis, topped Ford (7.4%) and GM (6.3%) in Q2 to become the second best-selling EV brand in the US with double-digit market share (10%).

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Trump’s penalty threat puts India in a bind over Russian oil

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Trump's penalty threat puts India in a bind over Russian oil

The Reliance Industries Ltd. oil refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, on Saturday, July 31, 2021.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

India is navigating a tricky balancing act after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened a “penalty” over its continued imports of Russian oil — a trade that New Delhi appears reluctant to end anytime soon.

Despite Trump telling reporters Friday that he “heard” India would halt purchases, officials in New Delhi have remained noncommittal. Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the country decides its energy import sources “based on the price at which oil is available in the international market and depending on the global situation at that time.”

“The Indians must be having some confusion” following Trump’s threat — a reversal from the more tolerant approach taken under the Biden administration, Bob McNally, president of consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

“Now we’re flipping around and saying, ‘What are you doing taking all this Russian oil?'” McNally said.

In March 2022 — a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Daleep Singh, a former U.S. deputy national security adviser for international economics in the Biden administration, reportedly said that “friends don’t set red lines” and “there is no prohibition at present on energy imports from Russia.” 

“What we would not like to see is a rapid acceleration of India’s imports from Russia as it relates to energy or any other exports that are currently being prohibited by us or by other aspects of the international sanctions regime,” Singh said.

On July 30, Trump announced that India would face a 25% tariff beginning Aug. 1, along with an unspecified “penalty” for buying Russian oil and military equipment.

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But analysts suggest that India, which is the third-largest energy consumer in the world, isn’t blinking. Reuters reported that there are no immediate changes planned to India’s long-term contracts with Russian suppliers, citing two anonymous Indian government sources that did not wish to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Russia has become the leading oil supplier to India since the war in Ukraine began, increasing from just under 100,000 barrels per day before the invasion, or a 2.5% share of total imports, to more than 1.8 million barrels per day in 2023, or 39%. According to the International Energy Agency, 70% of Russian crude was exported to India in 2024.

India’s energy minister Hardeep Singh Puri defended New Delhi’s actions in a July 10 interview with CNBC, saying that it helped stabilize global prices and was even encouraged by the U.S.

“If people or countries had stopped buying at that stage, the price of oil would have gone up to 130 dollars a barrel. That was a situation in which we were advised, including by our friends in the United States, to please buy Russian oil, but within the price cap.”

Russian oil exports had been capped at $60 per barrel in December 2022 by the Group of Seven nations, representing the world’s top economies, while the European Union had lowered the price cap to just above $47 per barrel in July.

Still, pressure is mounting. Vishnu Varathan, Managing Director at Mizuho Securities, said that the U.S. threats present a “clear and present danger” to India. He said that New Delhi is likely to remain non-committal on oil purchases as it assesses the trade-offs of this “Russia option” as a bargaining chip.

India will need to scour the global market for comparable oil bargains with Russian oil, Varathan, who is also the head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan, added.

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New Delhi could explore alternatives, including Iran — if an exemption from the U.S. can be negotiated — as well as a few other producers “either within or outside of the OPEC+ that have been pressured by the U.S,” Varathan said.

The OPEC+ bloc had agreed on Sunday to raise output by 547,000 barrels per day in September, as concerns mount over potential supply disruptions linked to Russia.

India is going to face a tough choice, Rapidan’s McNally said.

“Trump is serious. He’s frustrated with Putin… India is going to have a tough choice to make, but it’s hard to see them continuing to import that a million and a half barrels [of] Russian crude if Donald Trump decides to really put the whole relationship on the line over it.”

India's purchases of Russian oil helped to stabilize global oil prices: Hardeep Singh Puri

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Forbidden fruit: new Volkswagen Passat eHybrid Match and Black Editions

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Forbidden fruit: new Volkswagen Passat eHybrid Match and Black Editions

Wagons don’t get a lot of love Stateside, with American buyers choosing SUVs over – well, pretty much every other type of vehicle imaginable. That’s our loss, as the latest plug in hybrid versions of the Volkswagen Passat are here to prove.

The latest Passat Variant eHybrid (or, in some markets, Vario, which is what the Europeans like to call wagons) is different from the version we get in the US. Unlike the domestic version which is based on a low-cost platform specific to the US and China, the Euro-market version is built on the MQB platform that underpins VW’s flagship Arteon four-door coupe and both VW‘s and Audi’s entry-luxe SUVs.

That might seem weird, since VW has sold more than 34 million units sold worldwide and the Passat is the second top-selling Volkswagen of all time (behind the Golf and ahead of the Beetle). It’s understandable, then, that the European execs are pretty proud of their Passat.

The latest evolutionary stage of the modular transverse matrix (MQB evo)forms the highly innovative technical basis of the ninth Passat generation. Thanks to the significant economies of scale of the MQB evo, Volkswagen has again democratised numerous high-tech developments and made them available for hundreds of thousands of drivers. The two completely newly developed plug-in hybrid drives (eHybrid) are a perfect example of this. In combination with a new battery, they make all-electric ranges of around 100 km possible. This distance turns the new Passat Variant into an electric vehicle for everyday life – this is additionally ensured by short charging times as the battery can now be charged at AC charge points with 11 kW instead of the previous 3.6 kW. The Passat Variant eHybrid can even be charged with up to 50 kW at DC fast charging stations. In addition, the combination of electric drive motor and new economical turbocharged petrol engine provides overall ranges of around 1,000 km.

KAI GRÜNITZ
Member of the Brand Board of Management, VW

In case the jealous American wago-philes reading this aren’t jealous enough, Volkswagen has announced new Passat eHybrid Match and Black Editions that add nearly £5k of options for the new model year effectively for free.

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“Match is better equipped than the outgoing Life, with additional features including metallic paint, VW’s IQ.Light LED matrix headlights, tinted rear windows and an ‘assistance pack’ which adds area view and emergency assist,” reports Alastair Crooks, from the UK car site AutoExpress. “The new Black Edition comes with metallic paint, 19-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic sunroof, tinted rear windows (darker than the Match’s), heated front and rear seats, a head-up display, a 15-inch central touchscreen and the same assistance pack as the Match.”

The entry-level Match replaces the previous Life trim, but costs the same £45,555 (about $60,500), while the Black Edition costs the same as the outgoing R-Line, from £48,900 (about $64,950). The order books open 14 August.

You can take a look at some of the VW press photos of the European Passat wagon Variant, below, then let us know if you’d rather have this for $60K or the discount American version in the comments.


SOURCE | IMAGES: VW, via AutoExpress.


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E-quipment highlight: Wirtgen Vögele launches new electric MINI pavers

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E-quipment highlight: Wirtgen Vögele launches new electric MINI pavers

Wirtgen Vögele recently revealed the battery-powered MINI 500e and the MINI 502e electric pavers. With an electrically heated screed, a range of paving widths, and zero-emission operations, they’re paving a greener, cleaner path.

Co-developed by Wirtgen Vögele and Italian road equipment manufacturer C. M. S.r.l., the new electric pavers will enable contractors to bid on construction projects that are subject to even the strictest noise and emission limits – but the company is quick to point out that they’re capable enough to serve on conventional job sites.

“These pavers excel on small-scale construction projects and jobs covering a small area – the type of work for which paving crews would not previously have been able to use machines,” reads the official Wirtgen Vögele copy. “Thanks to their elimination of manual labor, among other benefits, the new MINI pavers improve the efficiency and quality of asphalt paving, particularly in the construction of sidewalks and drains, as well as in tight downtown locations.”

The new Wirtgen MINI 502e (the one with wheels) and the MINI 500e (the one with crawler tracks) offer pave widths from 0.25 to 1.8 m, feature a battery-electric drive outputting 22.8 kW (30 hp), and your choice of either a 15 kWh or 22 kWh 48V li-ion battery – good enough battery capacity for up to 16 hours of continuing paving. Both versions can be fully charged on a conventional 110/120 “L1” power socket in about eight hours.

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Electrek’s Take


Wirtgen Vögele MINI 500e; via Wirtgen.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the federal EV incentives are or even what the guys on your crew want to operate. What matters is that construction noise upsets Mrs. Clancik’s terrier, and she will force the town council to keep the noise down all by herself.

If your construction company wants to bid on any municipal work, that means you’re gonna have to stay quiet. Maybe even keep the smells to a minimum, too. Buying electric equipment means you can do both.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Wirtgen, via Construction Equipment International.


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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