Hyundai’s Ioniq sub-brand to be a dedicated EV brand in China

The electric vehicle market in China is quite lucrative, with brands coming in left and right to get a slice of their own pie. Hyundai has its own joint venture with BAIC Motor for the Beijing Hyundai brand, where they produce one electric car in the Hyundai Elexio, which uses the E-GMP platform like many other global Hyundai EVs.

However, it seems like Hyundai isn’t satisfied, as they are deciding to enter the Chinese market themselves with their “new” electric sub-brand called…Ioniq. 

If that confuses you a bit, well, know that Hyundai has never sold any of its Ioniq products within China, while the sub-brand has gone out and produced award-winning products like the Ioniq 5, 6, and 9 globally.

For the Chinese market, Hyundai is taking the Ioniq name and applying it to become its own full-electric vehicle brand, which will be debuting its first mass-production model at the upcoming Auto China 2026 in Beijing.

However, Ioniq has two concept cars to show off, which are the Venus Concept and the Earth Concept.

The brand’s ecosystem in China is called the Ioniq Universe, where the consumers are positioned in the center, which is called the Sun. Going by this, future models from Ioniq will be named after planets.

The Venus Concept shows a sleek, fastback sedan that’s reminiscent of the now-cancelled Honda 0 Saloon with a “single curve silhouette”, alongside a lightweight frame-structured roof, a transparent spoiler, and a wrap-around cockpit with a layout that fits right in with other Chinese EVs: a large screen that extends to the passenger side, and lots of large open spaces.

Meanwhile, the Earth Concept is an SUV that’s meant to give off a bold and powerful impression while being friendly to families. It has skid plates, exposed bolts, and lots of cladding to signify this vehicle’s off-roading intentions, and a wide-opening cabin featuring “air hug” seats, “shy tech” elements with hidden mood lighting that resembles the outdoors, and relief map patterns of Beijing

As mentioned before, more details will be unveiled at Auto China 2026, but it’s interesting to see how other brands are approaching this market.

^{Photos from Hyundai}