Hyundai shows EV platform for 400V and 800V charging and a range of over 500km
Hyundai introduces a new platform for electric cars. The platform allows cars with a range of more than 500km and supports an 800V battery system, which can also be switched to 400V for charging.
The E-GMP platform is Hyundai’s first platform designed exclusively for battery electric cars. Today’s Korean brand electric cars, such as the Kona Electric, are built on custom platforms that are actually intended for regular combustion engine cars. According to Hyundai, the new platform enables more flexibility, an extended range and more interior space, among other things.
For example, the battery pack is placed under the floor, between the front and rear axle, so that a flat floor is possible, there is more legroom and the center of mass is relatively low. According to Hyundai, the platform makes it possible to install relatively compact and powerful batteries, partly due to improved cooling capacities. A ten percent higher energy density is mentioned here. The company says that the platform must allow a range of more than 500 km under the global WLTP standard. Incidentally, the current Kona Electric is already close on paper, with a specified range of 484km.
An eye-catching part is the battery charging system. The platform has an 800V charging capacity as the standard, but also allows 400V charging without the need for additional components or adapters, according to Hyundai. The company is talking about the world’s first multi-charging system, where the motor and inverter can also switch from 400V to 800V.
The application of an 800V battery system is slowly emerging in electric cars. For example, the Porsche Taycan models have this. Such a system allows charging with 350kW, while at 400V that comes down to about 50 to 150kW. In the context of 800V, Hyundai talks about charging from zero to eighty percent in eighteen minutes and that 100 km of range can be added after five minutes, although the company does not mention the battery capacity.
The new platform makes bidirectional charging possible, whereby energy is extracted from the battery to supply power for, for example, electrical equipment, with a maximum of 3.5 kW feasible. Hyundai cites the supply of electricity for an air conditioning unit or a 55 “television as an example, but it would also be possible to charge another electric car. The function is referred to by the manufacturer as vehicle-to-load, or the v2l- function, but the manufacturer does not mention the more general v2x designation or v2g, where the latter stands for the situation in which the car supplies energy back to the energy grid.
The E-GMP platform will be used, among other things, for the upcoming Ioniq 5 car, which will be unveiled in 2021. That will probably be the first time that the new platform will be released and will form the basis for an electric car.