Hyundai unveils seven-seater Ioniq 9 in fast-growing market

Hyundai unveiled its first three-row electric SUV on Wednesday, pushing into a market for big family cars that global carmakers hope will one day be a profit powerhouse.

The Ioniq 9 will roll out in the US and Korea early next year with a range of up to 620km in long-range variants, the Korean carmaker said. Launches in Europe and other markets will follow, it said.

Three-row SUVs have replaced minivans and station wagons to become the big car of choice for many soccer moms and dads carrying children and friends around town as well as road trips with lots of passengers and gear.

Most electric vehicles (EVs) are money-losing, but profits from the petrol-powered versions promise carmakers big payoffs as battery costs decline and early launches give the brands a head start in the emerging market segment.

Lucid, General Motors' Cadillac, Volvo and Vinfast all are launching three-row EVs, while Hyundai corporate cousin Kia already has its own version.

“It's an important segment on the combustion side,” said Sam Fiorani, vice-president at research firm AutoForecast Solutions. “The problem with it is they are large vehicles and finding a way to design a battery pack around all the storage and the utility of a three-row takes a concerted effort.”

Moreover, big batteries are not enough to avoid charging during long road trips.

Still, carmakers need to get into the three-row SUV market to give loyal customers options, Fiorani said.

“If you aren't in that field where they expect you to be, they're going to move to somebody else and it's much easier to keep a customer happy than to win a customer away from another brand.”

With current incentives, Fiorani forecast the new models will help to more than double sales of three-row EVs to about 150,000 next year, from an estimated 68,000 this year.

The handful of models in the market with three-row versions includes Rivian's R1S, starting at $76,000 (R1,378,700) and Tesla's Model X, which starts at $80,000 (R1,451,264). There is also a Model Y three-row variant. Lucid started taking orders for its $95,000 (R1,723,376) Gravity SUV this month and Vietnamese EV maker VinFast on Tuesday started delivering the VF 9 SUV with a $70,000 (R1,269,856) starting price.

Hyundai did not disclose a price for the Ioniq 9, but the Kia EV9 starts at $55,000 (R997,744) and models from the related companies are often similarly priced.

Hyundai aims to have a full line-up of 23 EV models by 2030. The Ioniq 9, built in Georgia, will be able to charge from 10% to 80% in 24 minutes at high-capacity charging stations and it is compatible with Tesla's Supercharger network.

Most carmakers are pressing ahead with their plans even as US president-elect Donald Trump has promised to pull back government incentives for EVs. However, Ford in August shelved plans to produce an electric three-row SUV, choosing instead to build hybrid SUVs to woo customers with longer-range vehicles for road trips.

Rivals are also responding to rising consumer demand for cars with petrol-powered engines and a small battery pack as a less expensive way to go electric.

“The whole EV market now is difficult and (building three-row EVs) is especially difficult because of the higher prices and costs associated with it,” said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at auto research firm Edmunds.

The vehicles are part of carmakers' long-term strategy to expand EV offerings, but “expectations definitely need to be tempered in terms of volume in this segment”, she said.

The high price and limited range, especially for family road trips, restrict the appeal of such vehicles to early EV adopters, she added. The target audience of wealthy buyers for three-row SUVs should not be discouraged by Trump's plans to cut a $7,500 (R136,039) federal tax credit for EV buyers, analysts said, noting most do not qualify for such subsidies anyway.

Still, it does not help, Caldwell said. “It makes the package seem a lot less attractive.”