Hyundai isn’t a stranger to electrification, but up until this point the company hasn’t had a dedicated EV platform. With the introduction of E-GMP, that has changed.
E-GMP, or the Electric-Global Modular Platform, is a dedicated platform that’ll form the basis of a whole lineup of BEV vehicles from the entire Hyundai group.
Upcoming vehicles include the Hyundai Ioniq 5, as well as Kia’s first dedicated BEV that’ll be revealed next year. Additional models from both brands are likely to follow.
“Today our front-wheel driven Hyundai and Kia BEVs are already among the most efficient ones in their segments,” said Albert Biermann, President and Head of & &D Division for Hyundai Motor Group. “With our rear-wheel driven based E-GMP, we are extending our technological leadership into segments where customers demand excellent driving dynamics and outstanding efficiency.”
That’s right, E-GMP is rear-wheel drive based. If you’ve driven any of Biermann’s performance products over the years, you’ll know he and his team know what’s up in performance tuning, and gives us hope that these upcoming Hyundai and Kia products will be a hoot to drive.
Hyundai says there’ll be a high-performance model on this platform at some point that’ll make the run to 62 mph in less than 3.5 seconds and have a top speed of 260 km/h. That’s over 160 mph for those of us in the United States.
The platform utilizes, thankfully, an independent rear suspension, plus the world’s first integrated drive axle. It combines the wheel bearings and the drive shaft to transmit power to the wheels, which Hyundai says enhances ride comfort and handling stability.
Ride comfort is key on these electric vehicles. From our experience, because BEVs tend to be on the heavy side, suspension tuning has to be stiff to support the weight compared to a similar ICE vehicle.
Thearchitecturee supports both 400 and 800 volt charging systems. That means it’s possible it’ll support up to 350 kW charging stations. Hyundai is invested in Ionity in Europe for the increased charging capacity.
It should be noted that many Electrify America stations support 350 kW charging.
Bidirectional charging also comes standard.
The vehicle-to-load, or V2L, function can support 3.5 kW of output, which is a mid-sized air conditioner and a 55-inch television for up to 24 hours, according to Hyundai.
We expect to start seeing more news about these vehicles soon.
