Hyundai’s EV plans: 'Whatever it takes'

As consumer demand wanes but government expectations rise, car companies are stuck in the middle of a difficult electric vehicle market.

Into the challenges created by the Federal Government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) Hyundai Australia has a new CEO, Canadian Don Romano. He now faces the twin challenge of arresting the brand’s sales decline, while also meeting the new, but long overdue, emissions restrictions imposed by the government.

The challenge is particularly difficult as the NVES incentives car makers to sell more electric vehicles (EVs) in order to avoid fines, but the market demand for EVs has cooled off in the past year.

“We’re gonna have to do whatever it takes to continue to meet the government requirements,” was Romano’s frank admission.

Only seven weeks into his new role, Romano admitted he has worked out the finer details of his plans for Hyundai Australia, but he is hoping Hyundai can attract new EV buyers with quality products rather than discounts. It’s a process that’s just begun with the launch of the all-new Inster EV, which was voted World Electric Vehicle of the Year at the recent World Car of the Year Awards.

“Now, time will tell. I hope it comes from making really cool vehicles that become World Car of the Year,” he said.

He was optimistic that the EV market is shifting, with BYD managing to out-sell Tesla in Europe for the first time in April. Romano hopes this is the start of a wider trend of customers buying EVs on factors other than price or Tesla’s image and history.

“We saw a big upset with Tesla in Europe last month,” he explained. “So a new BEV [battery electric vehicle] company [BYD] passed Tesla. We’ll look at those opportunities and see, ‘hey, people aren’t buying just based on price.’ Beause that one that they bought that passed [Tesla] up, it’s not necessarily an inexpensive, cheap little EV. They bought it for different reasons. They bought it because it met exactly what they want. And that’s what we’re out to do. It’s to try to build EVs, different EVs.”

Romano is confident that Hyundai is well-placed for such a future, with the brand already offering multiple EV models and more on the way. The current Hyundai line-up includes the Inster, Kona, Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, with the Ioniq 9 set to join later in 2025.

“This is key right now, if you’re looking at electrification, we’re it because whether it’s an HEV [hybrid], a BEV, a PHEV [plug-in hybrid] – we have it. No one else does. So that is probably one of the greatest strengths and best kept secrets that I don’t think we have marketed to the public well enough.”

Hyundai Australia doesn’t currently offer a PHEV model in Australia, but does have PHEV variants of both the Tucson and Santa Fe available in other markets. Plug-in hybrids are expected to play a major role for many car brands in the coming years, as they will help reduce emissions under NVES while still appealing to consumers not interested in a fully electric car.