Hyundai Motor Co. said Sunday it will take the wraps off an electric vehicle (EV) concept model for its Genesis luxury brand at the upcoming New York International Auto Show.
The new concept will be of a GT or gran turismo design and comes ahead of plans by the carmaker to launch a production EV in 2021 that will be able to travel 500 kilometers on a single charge.
GT refers to cars built for high speed long-distance driving with excellent performance coupled with passenger luxury.
The global premier will take place on Thursday (Korea time), with the auto show to run from Friday through April 8, South Korea's No. 1 carmaker said.
Hyundai Motor said that Genesis EV concept's overall design will influence all future electric vehicles of the premium sub-brand and give the cars a distinct and upmarket look.
Without going into details, it said the EV concept is built on a dedicated platform focused on performance and flexibility with a driving range on par with conventional internal combustion engine vehicles.
It added that from the outset the base platform will permit different battery capacity to better meet various demands of consumers, and can be developed easily into different cars that can speed up production.
Genesis has already said that it plans to roll out at least four eco-friendly cars by 2025 that will comprise not only a pure electric model, but a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The move is aimed at meeting growing global demand for "greener" vehicles.
The PHEV car, based on the internal combustion version of a Genesis car, is expected out next year.
Related to the plan, industry experts said the push towards EV and plug-ins can make it possible for Genesis to make solid inroads into the European and Chinese markets going forward. In the past the Genesis has not made a meaningful effort to enter these large markets. (Yonhap)