Hyundai fights back against Chinese electric cars: Ioniq 3 registered for Australia as affordable EV firms for battle

Hyundai appears to be plotting its cheapest Ioniq model to date, with the brand applying to trademark the nameplate Ioniq 3 in Australia.

The brand has long promised that affordable electric vehicles are coming, and this would appear to be the first big step in that direction, giving the brand a potential weapon to battle models like the BYD Dolphin and Atto 3, the MG4, and the Peugeot e-2008.

The trademark was filed back in December, but has only just been published. And it adds weight to Hyundai's comments that it would be offering more affordable electric vehicles in Australia.

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"We used to be a leader in EVs, and now we're in the middle of the pile. So we need to get that back and claim that back as quickly as we can,” Hyundai Australia’s chief operating officer, John Kett, has told CarsGuide.

“Can we be as price competitive as the Chinese, and can we provide the applications at the top end where EVs are used for commercial? I think there's opportunity for us.”

Asked last year whether Hyundai would be able to match or even beat China on pricing, Mr Kett said he wasn’t sure, mostly because the base price keeps falling, but suggested Hyundai would be able to shrink the price gap, while working to convince new-car shoppers that buying a Hyundai EV is worth a price premium.

“I don’t know (if we can match them) because every day they set a new benchmark for themselves. So there are days when I look at our future portfolio and think ‘yeah’, and then I think ‘no’," he said.

“But we're also looking forward — are the costs of raw materials dropping? Are the costs of batteries dropping? Our job is also to convince consumers that the differentiation of our brand is worth a few thousand dollars more.”

Expected to launch in 2025, the Hyundai Ioniq 3 would be the brand's most affordable model in the Ioniq family and, according to The Korean Car Blog, will offer a driving range of more than 400kms – giving it a range advantage against the entry-level EVs in Australia.

It would be built on Hyundai's Integrated Modular Architecture, and willl likely feature an 800-volt architecture.

That last bit is particularly important, given the brand has hinted heavily at a cheaper electric performance model that would sit below the Ioniq 5 N in terms of price and performance – like the i30 N and i20 N – and an 800-volt architecture is considered a prerequisite for track performance.