Hyundai and Kia pause petrol, diesel, hydrogen development to focus on electric cars
A staff email leaked to South Korean newspapers claims Hyundai and Kia will pause engineering upgrades to petrol and diesel engines, and join the growing list of automotive companies focussing on electric power.
Drive understands Hyundai and Kia will continue to offer petrol and diesel cars for the foreseeable future, but will delay plans to make further improvements to their efficiency.
Representatives for the jointly-owned – but independently-run – Hyundai and Kia divisions in Australia said they were yet to receive any formal notification about future petrol and diesel engine plans.
An overhaul of Hyundai’s global engineering division will also see development on Hyundai’s third-generation hydrogen car technology paused indefinitely.
However, it is unclear if this means Hyundai is walking away from the technology it helped pioneer in the modern era, or just delaying further upgrades.
Hyundai has more than 30 hydrogen-powered cars on Australian roads to date as part of fleet trials in Canberra and Brisbane; Toyota has a small fleet of hydrogen cars running out of Melbourne.
The hurdle for hydrogen is the slow roll-out of the refuelling infrastructure.
However, there will soon be more hydrogen stations; the fuel may end up being more heavily relied upon by bus and freight companies which operate on fixed routes.
Meantime, by slamming the brakes on further development of petrol and diesel power, it seems the current crop of Hyundai and Kia petrol and diesel cars could become the high water mark for the time being, and possibly forever.
Although the confidential staff email outlining the changes was reported widely in international media, Hyundai and Kia has not clarified or confirmed the statements.
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