June 19, 2024 12:02 AM

How Hyundai expects to buck EV downturn in Europe this year and grow in 2025

Europe boss Michael Cole is bullish because Hyundai will soon add two key EVs: the Inster small car and a new Ioniq model.

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Hyundai Europe CEO Michael Cole foresee full-electric vehicles to accounting for at least 20 percent of the automaker’s total sales next year, up from an expected 14 percent this year.

FRANKFURT -- Hyundai expects to buck the downward sales trend in Europe for battery-electric vehicles this year and is even more bullish about 2025.

“Our aim is that sales of EVs account for 14 percent of our total sales in Europe this year – or even a bit more,” Hyundai Europe CEO Michael Cole told the Automotive News Europe Congress.

Hyundai reached the 14 percent level in 2023, helped in markets such as Germany by government incentives that lowered the cost of BEVs by thousands of Europe. Germany abruptly ended incentives before the end of 2023, causing BEVs sales to drop so far in Europe’s largest market. In May BEV sales were down 31 percent compared with the same month last year.

Cole expects to maintain Hyundai BEV share this year because it will add the Inster small electric SUV, a sub-€25,000 model with a range of about 300 km that will be unveiled later this month, and it will add a new model to its Ioniq family, which will be unveiled year-end.

With those two models firmly in the lineup by 2025, Cole said that he expects Hyundai’s BEV share could rise to “north of 20 percent” next year.

Cole said the unexpected removal of EV incentives in Germany at the end of 2023 was detrimental because it sent a message that the there was no longer support for the technology.

“That causes people to ask: Do I want to buy an EV?” Cole said in Frankfurt June 12.

He said that for the transition to electric mobility to succeed stakeholders ranging from governments to infrastructure suppliers to utilities need to do their part as Europe needs three times more charge points than it has right now. Fast chargers make up just 10 percent of the current network, Cole said.

The recent slowdown in BEV demand has coincided with volatile price swings by competitors such as Tesla. Cole said Hyundai would not make any “knee-jerk reactions,” but it is not immune to competition, so it would make adjustments when and if needed to align with market condition.