Ioniq 5 to Kona: Hyundai to offer EV, hybrid car rides at FIFA World Cup 2022

Hyundai Motor will showcase its full lineup of electric vehicles and hybrid cars at the upcoming FIFA World Cup to be held in Qatar this year. The football championship, which will begin next month, has the Korean carmaker as its official sponsor. Hyundai said it will provide transport for teams and officials during the four-week long tournament. Half of the transport will focus on carbon neutral goal by providing eco-friendly vehicles, a first in the history of the competition.

Hyundai Motor has announced that it will offer a total of 616 vehicles during the FIFA World Cup 2022. 446 vehicles out of these will be passenger cars, either EVs or hybrid vehicles. Hyundai will also offer 10 Elec City electric buses to transport members of the media. Jaehoon Chang, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, said, “By providing our eco-friendly hybrid and battery electric vehicles as ground transportation, we expect to achieve our shared goal of making the World Cup in Qatar a win-win for planet Earth and humanity."

Among the EVs and hybrid cars that Hyundai will showcase as transport vehicles are Ioniq 5, Sonata hybrid, Tucson hybrid and Kona hybrid. It will also deploy its luxury brand Genesis with its EVs like G80 and GV70 to transport FIFA officials.

To keep its EVs fully recharged during the event, Hyundai will also operate road-side charging services using Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) function on two of its Ioniq 5. Hyundai will offer 100 kW-150 kW EV chargers at parking facilities in Doha.

Hyundai is expected to launch the Ioniq 5 as its second electric vehicle, after Kona, in India soon. It will rival to the likes of Kia EV6 which was launched earlier this year at around ₹60 lakh (ex-showroom).

FIFA World Cup 2022 will be held from November 20 this year. The tournament will end on December 18.