Hyundai Targets First-Year Ioniq Hybrid Sales of 30,000

Hyundai Motor Corp. says it aims this year to sell 30,000 hybrid versions of its new Ioniq sedan—half of them outside South Korea. The car competes directly with the Toyota Prius hybrid.

The compact Ioniq, which is expected to achieve a U.S. fuel economy rating of about 57 mpg, went on sale today in South Korea with a starting price of about $19,000. The car will appear at the New York and Geneva auto shows in March.

Hyundai eventually will expand the Ioniq lineup to include plug-in hybrid and all-electric models. The company says it plans to increase Ioniq sales by 47,000 units in 2017, all of them in overseas markets.

Next year’s combined volume of 77,000 cars would be 80% greater than Hyundai’s total hybrid sales in 2015. The company concedes it was slow to develop hybrids. But it now hopes to become second only to Toyota in “green” cars by 2020, thanks to a planned array of more than 26 hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles.

Hyundai says the new-product blitz will enable it to increase its sale ratio of green cars to 10% worldwide in 2020 from about 2% last year.

Hyundai’s hybrid lineup until now has consisted of modified versions of its conventionally powered cars. The Ioniq is its first purpose-built electrified model. The car is powered by a Kappa 1.6-liter, 4-cylinder gasoline engine that makes 104 hp, a 43-hp electric motor and hybrid-specific 6-speed dual-clutch transmission.