“Our technology development in hybrids was specifically to address the issue of future plug-in deployment. Other manufacturers' hybrid systems were developed in such a way to not allow them to easily develop plug-in hybrids. For the Sonata Hybrid to become a plug-in hybrid, really all we need are bigger batteries. The basic technology platform is already designed to support a plug-in variation,” O’Brien was quoted as saying in a recent Plugin Cars article.
He explained that the plug-in Sonata hasn’t arrived yet, not because of lack of technology, but because of the company’s market strategy. "Like other manufacturers we have an active EV program with demonstration vehicles in service in Seoul, South Korea, and there will be more elsewhere. We have a lot of active R&D work going on in plug-ins, the question is value in terms of timing of release. We want our product to be worthy on its own merit independent of incentives," O'Brien explained on the sidelines of this year's Detroit Auto Show.
Because other automakers have already introduced such models in their lineup, Hyundai doesn’t want to lag behind them and is looking to launch their own model at “one of the upcoming auto shows in the next six months to a year”.
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