Hyundai's E-GMP : A new electric vehicle platform

​By Team PluginIndia
​Electric Vehicle News

Hyundai Motor Group revealed a new modular EV architecture will be part of 23 new battery-electric electric cars in the next five years. The platform consists of a ​Modular chassis design, 800V architecture, and the first cars are due in 2021.

Hyundai Motor Group which owns Hyundai and Kia, as well as Genesis showed us a new modular BEV platform for bigger vehicles called E-GMP (Electric-Global Modular Platform). Hyundai Motor Group has big plans for E-GMP. This new architecture will support the Hyundai Motor Group's goal of introducing 23 battery electric vehicle (BEV) models by 2025 across its Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands. The company's goal is to sell 1 million BEVs in that same time frame. The first few models will be hitting showrooms sometime in 2021.

Here are some features of this platform

• 800V electrical architecture
• Integrated charging control unit & bidirectional charging plug
  • It's able to supply up to 3.5kW of AC power (110V or 220V) to power appliances
• Vehicle to Vehicle charging
  • Vehicles on this platform will even be capable of charging other EVs.
• High Speed Charging 
  • 800-volt charge capability as standard with a rate of up to 350 kW 
  • Backward compatible with existing chargers (400 V systems). It uses its inverter to convert 400V into 800V, while doing so.
  • A 350kW DC fast charger should take an E-GMP battery's state of charge from 5 to 80 percent in just 18 minutes
• The power electric system -  the motor, inverter and EV transmission are all integrated into one unit making the drivetrain 2% and 3% more efficient.
• An integrated drive axle
  • Where the wheel bearings are combined with the driveshaft to transmit power
  • Five-link rear suspension which Hyundai says should improve comfort and stability
• The battery pack uses standardized modules made up of individual pouch cells
  • Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) chemistry will be used until they find better cells
  • Simpler design with cooling blocks are located below the modules for minimized heat transfer pathways
• Designed for 500 km range (WLTP test cycle) and above
• Designed to build either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive BEVs
• The new generation motor is able to spin 70-percent faster and use a 33-percent higher differential ratio, giving it much improved higher torque density compared to its current electric motor

The first E-GMP vehicle will be the Hyundai Ioniq 5, to be launched in 2021. The first E-GMP Kia vehicle will be a new crossover also to be unveiled in 2021. 

Image : Hyundai

Image : Hyundai

---

PluginIndia's Take
This just blew our minds! Hyundai is truly thinking for the future. The demand for high range electric cars will only grow and 500 km would soon be minimum requirement and this platform has efficiency improvements everywhere to support true long distance electric cars.

One feature that caught our attention is - Vehicle to Vehicle Charging. The possibilities are endless! ​"Hey, buddy! Got enough for a top up?". This might be a standard question by EV owners who are short on charge, when they meet a friend who has an E-GMP Hyundai :)
Integrated charging control is really cool. Hyundai claims that the car can operate a mid-sized air conditioner unit and a 55-inch television for up to 24 hours!

​Integrating the motor, inverter and EV transmission into one unit might be more efficient but we wonder how repairable that would be. Also diagnosing issues in these components also might be something Hyundai would have looked at.

All in all this kind of investment into building next gen EV platforms for next gen EV's is very impressive. We are not sure if these vehicles will be sold in India in 2021. Maybe by 2022 or 2023, we can expect these Hyundai electric cars in India.

​But for now, hats off to the team at Hyundai for the EV vision.

Subscribe to PluginIndia on YouTube to follow the Indian EV Industry and EV Community. Also subscribe to our podcast.