- Incremental improvements to Hyundai’s electric vehicle batteries should vastly improve ownership experience.
- The automaker has promised longer driving range, faster charging times and more precise battery health monitoring.
- The upgrades will begin rolling out in 2027.
For a so-called “traditional” car company, Hyundai’s push into the electric-vehicle world has been a stronger effort than most. Its EVs often boast class-leading range and charging speeds. But at its CEO Investor Day event in New York City on Thursday, the automaker announced it plans to make high-voltage batteries cheaper, more energy-dense and even faster-charging.
By 2027, Hyundai says its next-gen battery packs will be 30% cheaper and deliver 15% more energy density. For context, today’s Ioniq 5 with an 84-kilowatt-hour pack has an energy density of 670 watt-hours per liter, according to Hyundai.
A 15% bump would push that above 770 Wh/L, which should translate into a longer driving range. And that’s on top of the fact that the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Ioniq 9 all deliver well over 300 miles of EPA range already.
Charging speeds will see similar gains. Hyundai promised 15% shorter charging times across its lineup. That may sound modest on paper, but shaving a few minutes at a fast charger is no small feat. The standard-range Ioniq 5 today can charge from 10% to 80% in 24 minutes on a 350-kilowatt charger. Cutting that down to under 20 minutes isn’t as easy as it sounds. It will take serious improvements in chemistry, cooling and thermal management.
Hyundai Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP)
It’s also a timely move. With the U.S. steadily rolling out more higher-powered charging stations, automakers also need to keep up with improved voltage architectures and battery chemistries that can take full advantage of these new charging stations. Hyundai seems to realize that and is making improvements accordingly.
The automaker also touched upon how its EV batteries are aging. Hyundai says it has studied data from 50,000 Ioniq 5s, including some that have clocked more than 250,000 miles. The majority of those vehicles, it claims, are still holding onto 90% or more of their original capacity. That’s a strong vote of confidence for battery longevity, which really is no longer an issue on the vast majority of new EVs.
Plus, Hyundai said that from 2026 onward, it will begin using a cloud-based battery management system (BMS) to constantly monitor the health of the pack, not just during driving but also during charging and when the vehicle is parked, leading to faster and more precise diagnostics.
All of this also highlights just how much room there still is to improve lithium-ion batteries. Advances are happening across multiple areas at once, including software management, chemistry, manufacturing, design and packaging.
With EVs in the U.S. now needing to compete on merit alone, without help from the soon-ending $7,500 federal tax credit, these battery upgrades are timely and smart.
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