Hyundai will retire their Ioniq hybrids next month

After only six years in the market, Hyundai will completely halt the production of the first generation Ioniq. The all-electric variant was discontinued in South Korea last year and the hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions will roll off the Ulsan plant for the last time at the end of July 2022.

The Ioniq was the world’s first model with three electrified powertrains: a battery-electric model, a hybrid, and a plug-in hybrid. It sold 135,692 models in Europe between 2016 and 2021. The Ioniq Electric was the EPA's (the United States Environmental Protection Agency) most efficient vehicle with a rated fuel economy of 136 mpg (57.8 km/l). The Ioniq Blue Hybrid version, which has been rated at 58 mpg (25 km/l), was the most fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle to be mass-produced.

Hyundai’s move isn’t totally surprising as the Ioniq nameplate will become a (somewhat) separate brand within Hyundai that will be focused on electric vehicles. This mimics the move they made with Genesis when they turned the nameplate (Genesis Sedan and Coupe) into a sub-brand that focused on luxury automobiles. Genesis is to Hyundai as Lexus, Lincoln, and Infiniti are to Toyota, Ford, and Nissan, respectively. 

The new Ioniq brand will be based on a new platform called Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP). The first vehicle under the Ioniq brand was the Ioniq 5 which was launched early last year. The Ioniq 6 sedan is set to follow along with the Ioniq 7 SUV.

Aside from being environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient, the Ioniq has also won various industry awards. These include Red Dot Design Awards and two Good Design Awards back-to-back. It also won citations from Green NCAP Score, Women’s World Car of the Year awards, Car of the Year awards in Norway, Sweden, and France, as well as the Women’s World Car of the Year Supreme Award in both 2017 and 2018.