Hyundai is working on an all-electric city car with a target price of under £20,000. Hyundai Motor Europe’s marketing chief, Andreas-Christoph Hofmann confirmed that a battery powered replacement for the current i10 city car was part of the brand’s future plans, but said that creating a small electric car at that price point would be a significant challenge. 

Speaking at the Automotive News Europe Congress in Prague, the Hyundai boss said: “Everybody in the industry knows the target of this kind of vehicle is 20,000 euros.”

Hoffmann explained that the brand has committed to launching 11 full electric cars over the next eight years, but admitted that the cheapest ones will be the hardest to produce. He explained that city cars are hard to sell profitably because of their low pricing and the inherent packaging challenges of small electric vehicles. 

Fiat and Volkswagen are also working on entry-level all-electric cars, although neither has confirmed launch plans. The Volkswagen Group is understood to be pushing forward on development of its MEB-based Cupra UrbanRebel project while Fiat is developing a new Panda-sized model based on the Centoventi concept car. 

While Hoffman highlighted Hyundai’s commitment to its electric car roll-out, he stopped short of saying whether or not the entry level car will be part of the IONIQ family or a stand-alone Hyundai electric model like the Kona.

Hyundai is likely to be considering creating an all-electric replacement for the i10, which is sold throughout Europe, India and South America. However, Hyundai will need the Indian and South American markets to significantly increase their demand for electric cars in order to make up the volumes required to make a return. 

City cars are notoriously difficult to monetise with many brands opting to work on joint ventures to bring down development and engineering costs. High European labour rates and a significant increase in the amount of expensive safety technology now mandatory for all European-market cars has so far made the introduction of a small and affordable small electric car impossible. 

Sub £20k Hyundai electric car could join the brand's IONIQ range of all-electric models