The Hyundai Elexio Proves SUV Madness Isn't Stopping
We've honestly lost count of how many crossovers Hyundai has launched in recent years. Alas, get ready for another one, fully electric but skipping the usual Ioniq branding. Instead, the new EV bears the Elexio moniker and was developed in China for the local market. The newcomer is a product of Beijing Hyundai, a joint venture established in 2002 with BAIC Motor.
Elexio is Hyundai's first dedicated electric car engineered specifically for China, the result of a five-year development process. Low-resolution images published on the
Weibo
social media network show an SUV that looks more bulbous than the Ioniq 5 but seemingly smaller than the
Ioniq 9
. We've been told the headlights, featuring four-point cubes, are a nod to the number 8, considered the luckiest number in China.
Photo by: Hyundai
From some angles, the Elexio resembles an
Ioniq 5
on a McDonald's diet, trading the latter's sharp lines for more rounded surfaces. The rear pillar is finished in a contrasting color that extends onto the rear spoiler. There's no visible rear wiper, so we assume it's tucked beneath the roof spoiler.
Front and rear light bars follow current design trends, as do the flush door handles that improve airflow to enhance aerodynamic efficiency and unlock extra range. Other noticeable details include chunky roof rails, large two-tone wheels, and a nearly flat roofline that suggests generous headroom for rear passengers. It wouldn't be a 2025 car without glossy black accents, seen here on the wheel arches above the flared fenders.
Hyundai
will release technical specifications and pricing details later this year.
Hyundai Elexio
9
Source: Hyundai
Hyundai is the latest major global player to unveil China-only products. We've recently covered Toyota's
bZ7
sedan, Audi's new AUDI sub-brand, and the
Honda GT
. The Korean automaker isn't doing well in the region, as deliveries plummeted from 1.16 million units in 2016 to just 151,000 last year, according to data from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, as cited by
Bloomberg
.
Conditions have deteriorated to the point that Hyundai has had to scale back its manufacturing footprint in China from five to three factories since entering the market in 2002. Following the sale of the Beijing No. 1 factory in 2021, it sold the Chongqing plant last year for less than half of its initial asking price.
Despite these struggles, Hyundai isn't giving up on China. It's investing $1.1 billion with BAIC to ramp up EV development. The investment is evenly split between the two companies. Hyundai operates two R&D centers in the world's largest car market, one in Shanghai and another in Yantai, tasked with accelerating the development of new, China-centric electric models.
Catch Up With Hyundai:
Hyundai Is Planning a Rear-Wheel-Drive Hybrid
The Hyundai Ioniq 6 N Is Almost Here
Get the best news, reviews, columns, and more delivered straight to your inbox, daily.
back
Sign up
For more information, read our
Privacy Policy
and
Terms of Use
.
Source:
Hyundai
Share this Story
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Reddit
WhatsApp
E-Mail
Got a tip for us? Email:
tips@motor1.com
Join the conversation
(
)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
China to fast-track applications for rare-earth minerals to US, EU
June 7 (UPI) -- China has agreed to fast-track approvals for the shipment of rare earth minerals to the United States and some European Union nations. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke Thursday about easing trade tensions. On Saturday, China's Minister Seceary Wang Wentao said his nation is "willing to establish a green channel for qualified applications to speed up approval." Details weren't given, including the speed of the process and which EU nations are included. China controls 90% of the global processing of rare earth minerals. Major deposits also are found in the United States, Australia and Russia. Smaller amounts are in Canada, India, South Africa and Southeast Asia. Rare earth minerals are in the Earth's crust, making them difficult to extract. They include lanthanide, scandium and yttrium, all on the Periodic Table of Elements. Some major minerals that contain rare earth elements are bastnasite, monazite, loparite and laterite clays. The first rare-earth mineral was discovered in 1787 -- gadolinite, a black mineral composed of cerium, yttrium, iron, silicon and other elements. U.S. needs rare earth minerals The minerals are critical to American industries and defense, including use in cars and fighter jets. Batteries contain the minerals Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday "there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of rare Earth products." On April 29, the United States and Ukraine created a Reconstruction Investment Fund that includes rare earth mineral rights in the European nation. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were originally set to sign the minerals deal on Feb. 28, but the plan was scrapped after a tense exchange between them in the Oval Office in which Trump accused him of "gambling with World War III." The United States wants access to more than 20 raw materials in Ukraine, including some non-minerals, such as oil and natural gas, as well as titanium, lithium, graphite and manganese. The Chinese commerce ministry confirmed some applications have been approved without specifying industries covered. Some Chinese suppliers have recently received six-month export licenses, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said Friday, but it noted that there is a backlog of license applications. In a survey of member companies conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China late week, 75% say their stock would run out within three months, CNN reported. Jens Eskelund, the chamber president, said member companies were "still struggling" with the situation. "I hadn't realized just how important this rare earth card was before. Now the U.S. side is clearly anxious and eager to resolve this issue," he said a video on Thursday. "But of course, we'll link this issue to others -- the U.S. is restricting China on chips and jet engines, then China certainly has every reason to make use of this card. "As for whether China will change its rare earth export control policy, that probably still needs to be negotiated in more detail," Jin added. Trump said Xi and himself "straightened out" some points related to rare earth magnets, calling it "very complex stuff." The U.S. federal government said China had reneged on its promise made in Geneva on May 12. Delegations from Beijing and Washington plan to meet in Great Britain on Monday for trade negotiations. At the height of tariff war, China had imposed export restrictions on some minerals on April 4. Trump two days planned a 120% "reciprocal" tax on top of 25% levy on Chinese goods. But one week later it paused the bigger tariffs, including on other countries for 90 days. European nations' needs China's commerce ministry pledged to address the EU's concerns and establish a "green channel" for eligible applications to expedite approvals. He went to Brussels, Belgium, earlier this week and met with European Union's trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic. It's a problem for China and the EU. Sefcovic said the pause was slowing deliveries for manufacturers of a wide range of items from cars to washing machines. Wang urged the EU to "take effective measures to facilitate, safeguard and promote compliant trade of high-tech products to China." On Friday, the European Chamber, a Beijing lobby group, warned progress had "not been sufficient" to prevent severe supply chain disruptions for many companies.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
No more leprechaun economics: Ireland's tax swindle is finally ending
Donald Trump has sent Ireland to the naughty step. Once the altar boy of American commerce, Dublin now finds itself blacklisted alongside China, Germany and Vietnam, each a prime candidate for tariffs and sanctions. The offence? Running a surplus with the United States. On the face of it, the complaint seems petty. One country sells more than it buys. So what? But Ireland's problem, like the others on Trump's list, is that its surplus rests on a creed that has fallen out of favour. As offshoring hollowed out Middle America, the old Clinton mantra 'It's the economy, stupid' has begun to sound rather less clever than it once did. That, at least, is the mood in Trump's Washington. And judging by his campaign-trail fixation with the word tariff, many Americans agree: a reckoning is overdue. Ireland offers a particularly inviting target. Its surplus owes less to tangible exports than to tax gymnastics. A pill is made in Ireland for 50 cents, sold to a sister company (also in Ireland) for €10, and then shipped to the global market at the same price. The profit is booked in Dublin, while tax collectors elsewhere are left out of pocket. The trick doesn't stop there. Intellectual property is shifted to Irish subsidiaries, global sales are routed through Irish entities, and profits vanish into low or no-tax jurisdictions. Together, these sleights of hand form what we're invited to call the Irish economic miracle – a miracle that, by one estimate, deprives other countries of nearly $20 billion a year in tax revenue. The question being asked in Washington is: who benefits? Ireland, clearly. One in every eight euros of its tax revenue now comes from US firms. That's a fivefold increase since 2010, driven by Ireland's famously 'competitive' tax regime. It accounts for a large slice of a €150 billion bilateral surplus. When Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited the Oval Office in March, Trump put it plainly: 'We do have a massive deficit with Ireland, because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away.' It's hard to argue with the logic. Ireland has been undeniably clever at attracting American capital. Spending it is another matter. Much of the money sits on Irish books without generating the economic activity one might expect. The state's coffers may be overflowing, but the windfall is narrowly concentrated. Public spending, as ever, has been handled with something shy of brilliance. From roads and hospitals to housing and energy, the services most visible to the public have seen little improvement, despite years of surging resources have been channelled into more headline-friendly ventures: a €350,000 bike shed outside parliament; a vast new hospital project already among Europe's most expensive; and billions annually to accommodate asylum applicants – most of whom, the government has conceded, are economic migrants. The miracle, it seems, left little room for prudence. As every lottery winner learns, easy money tends to breed excess. But with full coffers, Ireland could afford to paper over the cracks. Meanwhile, American tech and pharma giants have flourished. Apple, Microsoft, Pfizer and others have routed billions through Ireland, to the delight of shareholders and pension funds. If Trump moves to close loopholes or impose tariffs, these are the interests he'll have to console ahead of the midterms. The losers, predictably, are the American workers left behind by the long, slow flight of industry and tax revenue. Worse off still are the countries quietly drained by Ireland's magic act. The sums involved are vast. The structures that move them are so complex they can feel impossibly abstract. But the consequences are not. According to modelling by the Universities of St Andrews and Leicester, this tax loss has deprived more than 100,000 children of school attendance and some 1.1 million people of access to basic sanitation. Quibble with the methods if you like, but the core truth is hard to deny: when profits are rerouted, people are short-changed. Not that Dublin seems overly troubled. Only last month, Ireland's Taoiseach declared: 'Ireland earns its living from an open and fair approach to world trade.' The most pious nations often turn out to be the most artful. Ireland rarely misses a chance to sermonise on Gaza, climate justice, or whichever cause currently allows it to cast itself as Europe's moral compass. But as La Rochefoucauld noted, hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. And by that measure, Ireland has paid handsomely. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Indian dealers offer steeper discounts as price rally dulls demand
By Rajendra Jadhav and Brijesh Patel (Reuters) - Gold discounts in India widened this week to their highest levels in more than a month, as a rally in domestic prices to near-record highs weighed on demand, while elevated rates also dampened buying across other major Asian hubs. Domestic gold prices were trading around 98,300 rupees per 10 grams on Friday, after rebounding from a low of 90,890 rupees last month and nearing the all-time high of 99,358 rupees. The spike in prices forced Indian dealers to offer discounts of up to $56 an ounce below official domestic prices, which include a 6% import duty and 3% sales tax, up from $31 last week. "Prices have gone up, and that's really hit demand. Hardly anyone was buying this week," said Harshad Ajmera of wholesaler JJ Gold House in Kolkata. Gold demand in India typically remains subdued during the monsoon season, which began earlier than usual this year. Jewellers are not making purchases because the lean demand season has started, and they don't want to build high-cost inventory, said a Mumbai-based bullion dealer with a private bank. Meanwhile, dealers in top gold consumer China charged premiums of $10-$14 an ounce over the global benchmark spot price. Last week, bullion changed hands at par to a $15 premium. "Elevated gold prices appear to have negatively impacted Chinese demand, judging by weaker trading volume," said Hugo Pascal, a precious metals trader at InProved. In Hong Kong, gold was sold at a premium of $0.30 to $1.30, while in Singapore gold traded between at-par prices and a $2.50 premium. "We've seen some of our clients coming to take profit and also on the wholesale side, we've seen some selling because prices are high," said Brian Lan, managing director at Singapore-based GoldSilver Central. In Japan, bullion traded anywhere between a discount of $0.5 and a $0.5 premium over spot prices.
