Ioniq may be on sale this week

Source: http://wardsauto.com/industry/hyundai-guardedly-optimistic-genesis-ioniq-us-sales-begin

. . . but next week it (Hyundai rjw) will launch U.S. sales of its new Ioniq hybrid and all-electric cars. O’Brien is bullish on their potential.

“Our focus was on developing a great compact car that happens to be electrified,” he says. “There were around 1.1 million buyers who shopped for an EV last year, but because of cost or maintenance or durability...or that they felt the car was too underpowered…they didn’t buy one.

“We are offering a no-excuse electrified vehicle that measures up to compact vehicles in the segment,” he says, noting a full marketing launch for the cars begins in March.

Sales targets are not being announced for the Ioniq lineup, which includes a plug-in hybrid due on sale in September. HMA’s former CEO Dave Zuchowski told WardsAutolast year the cars may need to be incentivized sooner than later due to low fuel prices in the U.S. that have hampered green-car sales.

“With gas at $2 a gallon there isn’t much natural demand for an alternative-fuel vehicle that’s going to generate terrific mileage,” he said in March.

However, O’Brien says Hyundai “will wait to see how the market receives the cars.”

The Ioniq hybrid is expected to sell the best of all three variants, thanks to having the highest fuel economy of any vehicle sold in North America without a plug – 58 mpg (4.0 L/100 km). “Which is 2 mpg (0.9 km/L) higher than (Toyota’s) Prius. And the Prius, as you know, is in its fourth generation,” he says.

However, O’Brien says Hyundai’s target market is neither the Prius nor other hybrid and electrified vehicle owners. “That’s not enough to make a business case.”​

The last statement belies a year long thread in PriusChat . . . Still, it sounds like they are going to be slow to rollout the Ioniq which often means low inventories and dealer markups.

I've never had a problem with their technology, just the hype of a product that can not be bought. Hopefully that ends this week.

Bob Wilson

 

Actually I'm hoping once the car is actually for sale in the USA, we can petition the 'powers that be' to make a "Hyundai_Kia" sub-forum to collect the scattered threads. We're starting to see redundant postings in the wrong forums about the Ioniq.

Some we know are just newbies who created an account and 'breathlessly' let us know "The Prius is DEAD! Long live the IONIQ!" . . . Ok, maybe a little exaggerated. Just I come to Prius chat to read about my rides and share my experiences and experiments. If I wanted to read about something that is not on my ownership horizon, well there are lots of places like "Car and Driver" or "CleanMPG" that want me to waste time reading their 'breathless' reports.

I used to own a Gen-1 and a Gen-3 Prius. But I don't visit those forums because I have nothing new to contribute and there is nothing they can tell me about our 2014 BMW i3-REx or 2017 Prius Prime Plus. If I posted anything there about my rides, I would be trolling because it is not relevant. In like fashion, once the Ioniq captures some PriusChat owners, they need a place to share their experiences and 'not scare the horses.'

Bob Wilson