1 month ago
35
The Hyundai Staria could soon go electric, joining the existing petrol, diesel, hybrid and LPG options offered globally.
Electric Cars
The Hyundai Staria is tipped to gain an electric drivetrain in 2025, a new report claims.
Hyundai will start constructing facilities to build an electric version of the Staria at its Ulsan plant on 25 January 2025, according to South Korean industry publication Newsis.
The Staria people mover and Staria Load cargo van launched in 2021 with petrol, diesel and LPG engines globally – replacing the Starex, sold in Australia as the iMax and iLoad.
An electric derivative of the Staria, the ST1 commercial van, entered production in 2024 with a separate rear offering the choice of a cab chassis or refrigerated cargo van body.
In June 2024, The Korea Economic Daily reported the electric Staria would be introduced in early 2026 with an 84kWh lithium nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery, as currently found in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric SUV.
The ST1 – also available as the Iveco eMoovy in Europe – has a smaller 76.1kWh NMC battery, with a 320-kilometre driving range rating based on the European WLTP lab-test standard.
Like the Ioniq 5 SUV and Ioniq 6 sedan, the ST1 has an 800-volt electrical architecture allowing for ultra-fast charging, with a 10-minute top-up said to add 100 kilometres of range.
The Korea Economic Daily reports Hyundai is targeting 15,000 to 20,000 sales of the Staria EV annually, compared to around 50,000 for current internal-combustion variants.
Electric people movers from China have also emerged recently, such as the LDV Mifa 9 and Zeekr 009.
Kia will soon introduce several electric people movers and commercial vans – previewed by the PV1, PV5 and PV7 concepts – rather than developing an electric version of its Carnival people mover.
The Hyundai Staria and Kia Carnival are based on the same Hyundai-Kia N3 platform used for mid-size and large vehicles from the brands.
Electric Cars Guide
Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.
