April 19, 2024

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Hyundai Motor said Nov. 22 it will launch the Lafesta electric vehicle in China next year.

The company unveiled the Lafesta sedan at the 17th China Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition that opened on Friday and lasts through Dec. 1, along with dozens of other environment-friendly vehicles.
 

“We expect the Lafest EV will strengthen our environment-friendly car lineup in China and help make a presence in the local electric vehicle market,” Cha Seog-ju, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Hyundai Motor Group (China), said in a statement.

The Lafesta EV is the eco-friendly version of the China-specific sporty sedan Lafesta, released in October last year.

The all-electric model will be available in the Chinese market in the first half of 2020, the statement said.

The model equipped with a 56.5 kilowatt-per-hour lithium-ion battery can travel up to 490 kilometers on a single charge. It takes 40 minutes to charge up to 80 percent of the battery at a fast charging station and takes nine and a half hours to fully charge the battery at a slow charger, Hyundai said.

Hyundai applied its “Sensuous Sportiness” design approach to the plug-in hybrid SUV concept. Sensuous Sportiness is defined by the harmony between four fundamental elements in vehicle design -- proportion, architecture, styling and technology.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)