It looks like a concept car, but the Ioniq V, unveiled at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show, is definitely a production model. It looks like the lovechild of a Toyota Prius and a Tesla Cybertruck, but don’t let its appearance hide the real message: with its new subbrand Ioniq, Hyundai wants to start from scratch and rebuild its market share in China. What AUDI has done for Audi is now a task granted to Ioniq as well.
To be frank, the 2026 Beijing Auto Show is not a comfortable venue for a Korean carmaker. China’s domestic EV brands have spent five years systematically dismantling the market positions of every foreign player in the room. Hyundai has been no exception.
Volume down by 82%
At its peak in 2016, Beijing Hyundai (the manufacturer’s joint venture with BAIC Group) ranked comfortably among the major players in the world’s largest car market. By now, its volume has shrunk by 82 percent, demonstrating how customer preference for local brands is affecting all ‘foreign’ car manufacturers.
Against that backdrop, what Hyundai chose to do at Auto China 2026 is worth noting. Not because the Ioniq V will reverse a decade of decline on its own, but because the accompanying strategy is a major repositioning exercise.
About the name: the V stands for Venus (like the concept), not victory nor the Latin number for five. All Ioniq models will carry a cosmic name. The architecture is local, and that makes a difference. China’s EV market – its battery supply chains, its development speed, its software ecosystem – has become the most demanding proving ground on earth. Products designed to win there would, by definition, be globally competitive. Though there’s no genuine plan to bring the V to Europe at this point, it would make a viable candidate for our notion.
Single-curve roofline
The Ioniq V is a large sedan: 4,900 mm long, 1,890 mm wide, with a 2,900 mm wheelbase, delivering genuine rear-seat space. The single-curve roofline from the Venus concept carries over into production, along with frameless doors, floating side mirrors, and edge lighting that visually sharpens the front face.
The platform is 800-volt, co-developed with BAIC, with batteries supplied by CATL. The range on the Chinese CLTC cycle exceeds 600 kilometers (equivalent to 450-480km on the WLTP standard used in Europe). Sufficient, but not ground-breaking.
Inside, a 27-inch 4K display anchors the dashboard, supported by a Horizon head-up display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chip running an LLM-based AI assistant. ADAS development is handled in collaboration with Momenta, a Chinese autonomous driving specialist with deep local mapping data. It shows how local suppliers are deeply involved in the genesis of this range.
1 billion euro investment
Hyundai withholds motor output, battery capacity, and peak charging speed. This is a standard tactic in China’s show environment, where competitors have not yet committed to their own figures. The Ioniq V reaches Chinese buyers in early 2027.
To drive the relaunch of Hyundai Ioniq, the Brand commits to a broader 20-model pipeline, including EREV variants, an architecture that is rapidly gaining ground in China among buyers who still carry range anxiety.
The investment commitment is real: Hyundai and BAIC have jointly committed 8 billion yuan (approximately 1 billion euros) to Beijing Hyundai. The brand’s stated sales target is 500,000 annual units by 2030. Ambitious, because it represents roughly 2.5 times current volumes.
