back to article Hyundai's i10 goes green

Korean car firm Hyundai plans to launch a leccy version of its petrol-powered i10 small hatchback later this year or during early 2011. i10_EV_02 Hyundai hopes to launch the i10 EV later this year The i10 electric vehicle (EV) will be powered by a 65bhp (49kW) electric motor that will draw power from a 16kWh li-ion battery …

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  1. Andy 97
    Thumb Up

    Excellent

    The South Koreans are indeed a skilled and ingenious people.

    How quickly they have become such a serious global manufacturer.

    It's not India that others need to watch closely.

    Good for them!

    1. YARR
      Flame

      Korea

      Yes but the i10s and i20s are all made in India (+ designed in Germany). I would hazard a guess that this accounts for why they are cheaper than rival manufacturer's cars and for their apparent success.

  2. Mike Wilson
    FAIL

    Where will the power come from?

    Lots of car manufacturers launching electric cars while the expers tell us the lights will be going out soon as we don't generate enough power. Joined up thinking?

  3. Steve Todd
    Stop

    EV battery range

    A decent EV will use between 200 and 250 watt hours of power per mile. It's pretty easy to work out the real range (rather than the wildly optimistic numbers that manufacturers love to quote) by dividing the battery capacity by these numbers. 16KWh battery? That will be between 60 and 80 miles on a charge then. The Tesla by comparison has a 53KWh battery. Applying the same numbers to that gives a range of 212 to 265 miles, which agrees reasonably well with the official EPA number of 244 miles on a charge.

    1. markp 1
      Go

      thereabouts...

      Similar rule of thumb calculations gives me just under 100km at a constant 100km/h, assuming the car has typical aerodynamic and rolling friction properties. That's on the flat in still air, mind.

      That's an hour of cruising at 16kW, which maths out to roughly 62mph or a touch below, therefore 16kWh, assuming about as much distance is gained coasting to a halt as is lost doing the 0-100km/h run. Of course, in the latter stages you won't be able to go as fast so that may artificially prolong the range. And let's not get into discussions of whether you really want to be performing abusive 100-0-100% charge deltas on a battery pack that's so essential yet difficult and expensive to replace; for safety's sake we can knock 20% off that figure, and then a further 5% to give us enough of a reserve to limp to the next safe lay-by when it starts to conk - so, 75km at 100km/h or 100km at 75km/h....

      100 miles (160km) whilst using 75% of the capacity is more like a constant 47km/h, or just under 30mph, conveniently enough the sort of conditions that a lot of economy runs are performed under (my petrol car is certainly at peak efficiency around that speed). Of course, being an electric, you can go between 0 and 30mph and back all day and not see the range suffer as much as in a petrol or diesel - perhaps you can easily get 100 miles from a 100% charge dipping to a touch under 10% when mooching around town? Three or more hours plugging along at urban speeds is enough for anyone to endure in one day, so it'd be a great overnight-charge commuter and shopping cart with enough oomph to dart away from the lights or carry you a couple of junctions up the motorway to ikea without getting in trouble. Just don't get ambitious and try visiting the scottish rellies (or if you're scottish / northern english, the welsh ones) with it.

      Bit like my old 1-litre polo with the never-more-than-quarter-full fuel tank it had whilst i was at uni (and I wonder why the filler neck rusted), only cheaper per mile yet drastically more expensive in the long run.

  4. David Kelly 2

    Huge charging power required

    Back of envelope calculations the power delivery required to perform a 80% charge in 15 minutes is frightening. Its several times larger than a typical home power connection from the grid. And someone claims to terminate that much electrical power in a little car?

  5. SmallYellowFuzzyDuck, how pweety!
    Thumb Up

    My wife drives a (Petrol) one!

    The i10 is an excellent little car and is a fantastic design.

    It's also a great price (Around 7 grand I think for the pertrol one) so an electric one should be a fairly sensible price, well for an electric car anyhow.

    Yep, I'm sure the South Koreans can make a good electric version.

    I will be watching this development very closely.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Wheres My 100% regenerative EM Brakeing...

    still waiting...

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