• This Beijing-Hyundai crossover is designed for the Chinese market primarily, and likely will slot under the Ioniq 5. 
• It will likely use the same E-GMP platform as the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9. 
• Not much else is known about this small mystery crossover. 

Hyundai’s quest to dominate the world’s electric vehicle market is moving forward. We’re on the cusp of this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, and it looks like Hyundai’s angling to get a piece of that small electric crossover pie in a place where it hasn’t been much of a player before: China.

This week, Beijing Hyundai—Hyundai’s main Chinese arm, responsible for the development and marketing of its vehicles in the world’s largest car market—showed off a nameless crossover doing stunts in the snow. Could this be a new model ready to slot under the Ioniq 5?

As any modern prototype teaser would be, the car is heavily camouflaged. Yet from what we can see, it looks nothing like any of the Ioniq cars we’ve seen yet—then again, most of Hyundai’s Ioniq-series models don’t really resemble each other.

This mystery crossover does look shorter and more decidedly traditional SUV-like than the relatively low-slung Ioniq 5. The pixel-like rear taillamps do suggest that it could likely be badged as an Ioniq model, although Hyundai has made no mention as to what its next Ioniq act would be after the recently launched Ioniq 9.

This EV crossover is likely to use the same E_GMP electric car platform found on most of Hyundai’s EVs, save for the dinky little Inster that won’t make it out of Europe and South Korea. It’s not clear if this model will use the full-fat 800-volt architecture used on cars like the Genesis GV60 or Ioniq 5, or if it will use a cheaper 400-volt variant, like the not-for-America Kia EV5.

In fact, I suspect that this model could end up being a sort of Hyundai version of the Kia EV5. Kia primarily designed the boxy EV5 for markets like China, where it was meant to take advantage of the supply chains and local tastes of markets in Asia.

Yet despite its claims of market localization making it unsuitable, the EV5 has had fairly large appeal. In China, it’s helped turn around Kia’s shrinking sales. In Australia, it’s already getting solid reviews.  Canadians are eager to receive the model, especially in light of, well, everything going on with Tesla.

It feels like a real misstep for Kia to not offer the EV5 in the U.S., but I digress.

If the EV5 is a hit, I can only imagine that Hyundai would in on that too. Like Kia, Hyundai has also struggled in China as of late, where its ICE vehicle sales continue to sink, while its EVs have been slow to enter the market. Last year was a bloodbath for the brand, with sales in China down more than 40%. This compact crossover could be just what the brand needs to turn its sales around. It will be entering a crowded market of domestic Chinese competitors, though.

We’ll likely know more about this mystery Hyundai SUV before the Shanghai Auto Show next month. Will it come to the U.S? Who knows, but I sure hope so. We need more choices.

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