Hyundai Ioniq Electric is hard to find due to ‘battery shortage’ limiting production

The Hyundai Ioniq Electric still holds the crown of ‘most efficient passenger car’ and with its relatively low price, it attracted a lot of customers.

But now Hyundai is warning dealers of low availability of the all-electric version, which they blame on a ‘battery shortage’.

Over the last few months, we received several reports from buyers trying to get their hands on the vehicle unsuccessfully.

In the U.S., the all-electric version of the Ioniq, which is also available as a hybrid and plug-in hybrid, is very much used as a compliance car by the automaker with only a handful of deliveries per month and almost all in California or other CARB states.

They delivered the vehicle in higher numbers in some European countries, but supply has still been low on the old continent lately.

For some reason, the Hyundai Ioniq Electric ended up being delivered in higher numbers in Canada. Despite its smaller population, Hyundai delivered twice as many Ioniq Electric in the country than in the US last year.

But now Hyundai has been limiting supply in the market too and they are even canceling orders for the model year 2018 and already replacing them with vehicles from the model year 2019, which isn’t due until later this year.

In a memo to dealers obtained by Electrek, Hyundai says that it is due to a ‘global battery shortage’:

“Due to a temporary global battery supply shortage, the sold order entry system for 18MY IONIQ EV will be closed effective immediately. The 19MY IONIQ EV will be opened at the same time to allow pre-sale of the 19MY IONIQ EV with deliveries in July.”

Hyundai then suggests pushing the Ioniq HEV and PHEV instead, which are available with “good inventory level”, according to the memo.

While it’s true that demand for batteries in the automotive industry is creating some shortage, Hyundai has also not been very aggressive in its production plan for the all-electric version of the Ioniq.

They reportedly only ordered 6,000 to 7,000 EV battery packs from LG Chem before starting production and they were planning for only 1,200 vehicles per month.

Last summer, they reportedly started planning for a production of 1,800 units per month, but the 50% increase in production capacity hasn’t really been noticeable on the market.

The Hyundai Ioniq Electric 2018 has a range of 125 miles, but the Korean automaker has been rumored to be working on a 200-mile version ever since it launched the vehicle.

Some thoughts that it might be coming with the 2019 model year, but it still unconfirmed at this point.

The company says that it will still honor pricing and financing deal made with people who ordered the 2018 vehicle and that will have to get the 2019 model year.