The shift of automobile manufacturers designing, building, and shipping electric vehicles has expanded and grown significantly, particularly over the last couple of years. Some companies already have quite the line-up of EVs, whilst others, such as Hyundai, are just beginning to explore the market, with its first ground-up EV (the Ioniq 5) only just debuting a few weeks ago.
But, even though Hyundai has only just started delving into fully electric cars, the automobile manufacturer is reportedly elevating its plans to go all electric. As Electrek reports, Hyundai has allegedly closed its research centre's engine design section, with the 12,000 workers that make up the division being transferred to the EV powertrain department.
The information comes from an email from Hyundai's R&D chief, Park Chung-kook, who stated, "Now, it is inevitable to convert into electrification. Our own engine development is a great achievement, but we must change the system to create future innovation based on the great asset from the past."
According to Eletrek's report, a few members of the combustion engine team will remain to work on modifying and fixing existing engines, but this does seem to suggest that there will not be any new combustion engine models coming from Hyundai from now on.
Hyundai itself has yet to make any official comment on this move.