Surpassing Bolt and Tesla

Hyundai Motor Co.'s Ioniq Electric car has received the top rating on fuel economy from the U.S. government.
Hyundai Motor Co.'s Ioniq Electric car has received the top rating on fuel economy from the U.S. government.

 

Hyundai Motor Co.'s Ioniq Electric car has received the top rating on fuel economy from the U.S. government, making it the most fuel efficient electric car.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on November 20, the Ioniq Electric got 136 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent, or MPGe, in the combined, 150 MPGe in the city and 122 MPGe in the highway.

The figure MPGe is used by the EPA to compare the energy consumption of an electric or a hybrid car to the fuel economy of an internal combustion vehicle. It is a measurement of how far a car can travel electrically on the same amount of energy as contained in 1 gallon of gasoline.

The BMW i3 electric car came in second with 124 MPGe, followed by the Chevy Bolt with 119 MPGe, the Chevrolet Spark with 119 MPGe, the Volkswagen e-Golf with 116 MPGe, the Nissan Leaf with 114 MPGe and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV with 112 MPGe. Tesla Motors' Model S 60D got 104 MPGe.

Fuel economy is important because EV owners are now required to pay for charging their car. The charging fees for all EVs are set at 313.1 won (US$0.27) per kilowatt-hour as the Korean government has started charging for the use of EV chargers from April 11.

Recently, Tesla, which has provided customers with free access to the company's Supercharger stations, has also announced that it will no longer offer free charging at the stations from next year.

The EPA estimated the yearly fuel cost of the Ioniq Electric at US$500 (588,500 won), the lowest among other competing vehicles.

The figure was cheaper than the annual fuel costs of the BMW i3, the Chevrolet Bolt, the Chevrolet Spark and the Volkswagen e-Golf with US$550 (647,350 won) and the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Tesla Model S with US$600 (706,200 won). Hyundai Motor said the Ioniq Electric has the excellent annual fuel cost due to the high efficiency of its motor and battery.

Hyundai Motor plans to begin selling the Ioniq Electric in the U.S. by the end of this year and develop an EV that can run more than 300 kilometers with a single charge of battery by 2018.

 

 

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