Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL), following the tremendous response for its electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) Kona, is planning to come up with an electric vehicle (EV) for the mass market.

S.S. Kim, Managing Director and CEO of HMIL, said, “In the last 15 days, we have already received 120 bookings for the Kona”, and “Hyundai Kona is for a niche segment and the market size is small. The initial response is quite positive”

He further added that Hyundai would develop an EV for the mass market that would be introduced in three-to-four years’ time as Kona is branded as a high-end market segment product of the company.

“We are working on a platform for the mass market. We will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars. It is too early to talk about the price point”, he mentioned.

When asked about the high pricing of the EV, he said that the prices of lithium-ion batteries determine the price of the vehicle. He mentioned, “We are trying to find a partner to source it locally”

On the matter of the hybrid EV roll-out, he further added that the company had the technology as well as the product. The hybrid vehicle has already been launched in the U.S., South Korea, and European Union.

For the Indian scenario, he said, “India does not support hybrid any more. In the current situation, there is no incentive to introduce a hybrid model”