Hyundai BlueOn (Hyundai i10 Electric) revealed

The Hyundai BlueOn EV

Hyundai reveals the all electric Hyundai BlueOn in South Korea. With lots of fanfare about this being ‘South Korea’s first all electric car’ and intimating that Hyundai is fully committed to an electric future. Which of course is poppycock.

Hyundai first revealed the BlueOn exactly a year ago in the run-up to the Frankfurt Motor Show, only then it was called the Hyundai i10 Electric. Hyundai tell us they’ve been working their little socks off for the last year to create the Hyundai BlueOn as a production-ready car. Really?

It seems that Hyundai has invested £22 million in the BlueOn project in the last year. Which in absolute terms is a lot of money. But you need to compare it to Hyundai’s annual revenue of around £17.5 billion. Which we reckons equates to the guy on £100k a year buying a newspaper every other day for a year. So, not exactly a ‘committed’ investment.

For that investment they’ve got a little electric i10 which is ready to go in to production. But don’t start queueing at your local Hyundai dealers for a plug-in Hyundai i10 that will manage to do 87 miles (under perfect conditions) after a six hour charge. Because you can’t have one.

Instead, Hyundai are planning on supplying ‘…30 BlueOn vehicles as test fleets to various government organizations in Korea by October’. Hyundai also plans to ‘…expand its manufacturing capabilities for BlueOn next year, carrying out test productions and making about 2,500 units by the end of 2012.’

All of which smacks of the same tokenism as other manufacturers. They feel the need to be seen to be embracing ‘New’ technology (which, of course, electric cars aren’t) even though they realise it’s a pointless exercise.

Still, a new car from the fourth biggest car maker on the planet that’ll sell 2500 a year. In a few years time. Maybe.

Big news.

By Cars UK