Hyundai works with a Californian EV start-up to develop electric vehicles

Hyundai Motor Company has recently announced that they will be working with an L.A. based electric vehicle start-up called ‘Canoo’ in building their range of electric vehicles.

A deal of $87 billion invested in the electrification of common motor vehicles has been struck between Canoo, Hyundai, and KIA motors. Hyundai plans on using this platform to also work on their Purpose Built Vehicles (PBV), which they announced at the beginning of this year.

Canoo, founded in 2017 by Stefan Krause and Ulrich Kranz, plan on putting their electric vehicles on the road by the year 2021. They have announced that their vehicles will be given as a subscription to the customers and the wait-lists for these vehicles have already started to form.

Hyundai will use Canoo’s ‘skateboard’ architecture as the base for their vehicles. The base will be underneath the cabin of the car and will house the batteries and the electric drivetrain of the vehicle. This kind of chassis will allow Hyundai to cut down on the cost as well as complexity of their EV line.

The head of R&D down at Hyundai, Albert Biermann proclaimed that this chassis was perhaps the reason that Hyundai were interested in working with Canoo in the first place. “We were highly impressed by the speed and efficiency in which Canoo developed their innovative EV architecture, making them the perfect engineering partner for us as we transition to become a frontrunner in the future mobility industry.”

Hyundai, however, is no stranger to investing in good quality and innovative technological advances. From electric and autonomous vehicles to flying cars, Hyundai is always in pursuit of a paradigm shift in the automotive industry.