Hyundai love Australia as a proving ground, their Sydney HQ is often awash with new vehicles, in disguise or hidden out of sight from the journos who visit to collect press cars. But there’s something new on the roads for the next 12 months, the yet to be announced Hyundai NE electric car.
Spotted by EFTM’s very own Stig yesterday in the Northern Sydney Suburb of St Ives, the small hatch shaped NE here to do tests and configuration no doubt.
The car, covered by secret spy cloth, is registered in NSW without a compliance plate, meaning once it’s done testing – it can never be registered again.
What’s brilliant is that same car made it’s way to Bathurst today, according to Joel Little who posted the photos in an Aussie EV Facebook Group.
That’s important, because it signifies an important range advantage over a previous model Hyundai – the Ioniq, which, for us, fatefully didn’t make it all the way to Bathurst without needing a tow to get to charging.
NE of course could likely be a code name (for New Electric perhaps?) but we’ll have to wait for the launch to find that out, it certainly doesn’t appear to be a new Kona in any shape or form.
The NE is an all-new model for Hyundai, and has previously been seen testing at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
From the testing, and information we have thus far (very little) this is likely to be a 2022 model for Hyundai in an important EV race for all manufacturers as countries around the world move to EV only sales in the decades ahead.
