South Korea’s top carmaker, Hyundai Motors, has unveiled a look at its first electric car with a goal of placing the cars into mass production by the year 2012.
The i10 hatchback model will be powered via batteries that are made out of SK Energy with a total capacity of holding 16.4. Prices for the new electrical vehicle have not yet been disclosed by Hyundai.
The car tentatively referred to as the ‘BlueOn,’ can travel a distance of 140km on just a single charge and is able to reach a maximum speed of up to 130km every hour.
Hyundai will supply and produce a small amount of the vehicles to government agencies over 2010 and into 2011 before they open the car sales up to the public in 2012, at which point it will release 2,500 units. The car manufacturer said that it is still too early to release which markets will receive the vehicle first.
A spokesperson for Hyundai stated that they are going to take baby steps with the new electric vehicle and that it is difficult given there is no infrastructure in place in many countries including Korea to support charging stations.
Other auto manufacturers are also hard at work on electric vehicles but limited ranges and high costs of operation are considered to be the largest hurdles stopping them from being adopted widely by the public.
The first manufacturer to roll out electric vehicles was Mitsubishi from Japan starting with their i-MiEV electric car.
