Right now, many traditional carmakers are making the shift towards going full electric. However, many are still developing and producing gas-powered vehicles, but if a report from the Korea Economic Daily is to be believed, Hyundai is actually making a rather drastic shift by going all-in on electric cars.
The report claims that the Korean carmaker has reportedly stopped development on combustion engines, the engines that you would typically find in a gas-powered car. This is apparently confirmed in an email by Hyundai’s new R&D chief Park Chung-kook who told employees that they would be shutting down new engine development.
The report states that there are about 12,000 people who were previously working on developing new engines, but they are now being transferred over to the EV department where they will be working on powertrain development.
This is quite a huge deal because it means that for the next few years, Hyundai’s gas-powered vehicles will continue to use whatever the company has already developed. It might be a tricky transition as not all customers are eager to adopt EVs just yet, so it could be difficult to convince customers to buy a new Hyundai car that uses the same engine tech as previous models.
At the same time, this change could prove to be advantageous for Hyundai in the long run, where with more resources and efforts made towards powertrain development, it could give them a leg up on the competition.
Filed in . Read more about Electric Cars and Hyundai. Source: electrek.co