While the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid managed to take the title of “most energy efficient car” just a few months ago, it’s already lost it — the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric has managed to outperform Toyota’s offering and all other cars on the market according to the US EPA’s testing system.
Previous to the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid (PHEV) taking the title earlier this year — with an EPA-rated 133 MPGe (Miles Per Gallon Equivalent) combined when operating in electric mode — #1 belonged to the BMW i3, which has held that spot since 2014 (the most energy efficient version, the 22 kWh offering, has an EPA-rated 124 MPGe combined).
The 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric beats the Toyota rating with an EPA-rated 136 MPGe combined — just a bit higher, but higher nonetheless. This is a hard title to claim, with several highly efficient electric cars now on the market.
As a comparison with a model that probably more people are familiar with, the 2017 Nissan LEAF EV has an EPA-rated 112 MPGe combined. So, the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric is quite a bit ahead of the LEAF. With the Nissan LEAF refresh supposedly coming soon, though, perhaps this figure will move northwards some within the near future.
As a reminder, the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric possesses an EPA-rated single-charge range of 124 miles — fairly decent, though not near what the Chevy Bolt EV and the Tesla Model 3 will be offering. With this in mind, Hyundai exec Ahn Byung-ki was recently quoted as saying that a ~200-mile version of the Ioniq Electric would be arriving on the market by 2018. For now, those who require greater range will have the option of the going with the PHEV version of the Hyundai Ioniq that is slated to hit the market earlier next year.
The 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric will be hitting the US market before the end of 2016, reportedly.
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Autonomous Drones for Better Farming
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
