The Hyundai Staria could soon go electric, joining the existing petrol, diesel, hybrid and LPG options offered globally.
The Hyundai Staria is tipped to gain an electric drivetrain in 2025, a new report claims.
Hyundai will start constructing facilities to build an electric version of the Staria at its Ulsan plant on 25 January 2025, according to South Korean industry publication Newsis.
The Staria people mover and Staria Load cargo van launched in 2021 with petrol, diesel and LPG engines globally – replacing the Starex, sold in Australia as the iMax and iLoad.
A petrol-electric Staria Hybrid was unveiled in February 2024 – related to the Kia Carnival Hybrid – and now a full battery-electric version appears likely to follow.
An electric derivative of the Staria, the ST1 commercial van, entered production in 2024 with a separate rear offering the choice of a cab chassis or refrigerated cargo van body.
In June 2024, The Korea Economic Daily reported the electric Staria would be introduced in early 2026 with an 84kWh lithium nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery, as currently found in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric SUV.
The ST1 – also available as the Iveco eMoovy in Europe – has a smaller 76.1kWh NMC battery, with a 320-kilometre driving range rating based on the European WLTP lab-test standard.
Like the Ioniq 5 SUV and Ioniq 6 sedan, the ST1 has an 800-volt electrical architecture allowing for ultra-fast charging, with a 10-minute top-up said to add 100 kilometres of range.
The Korea Economic Daily reports Hyundai is targeting 15,000 to 20,000 sales of the Staria EV annually, compared to around 50,000 for current internal-combustion variants.
It is reportedly targeted at the European market where several electric rivals already exist, including the Ford E-Tourneo Custom, Volkswagen ID. Buzz, Mercedes-Benz eVito, and models from the Stellantis group.
Electric people movers from China have also emerged recently, such as the LDV Mifa 9 and Zeekr 009.
Kia will soon introduce several electric people movers and commercial vans – previewed by the PV1, PV5 and PV7 concepts – rather than developing an electric version of its Carnival people mover.
The Hyundai Staria and Kia Carnival are based on the same Hyundai-Kia N3 platform used for mid-size and large vehicles from the brands.
Hyundai confirmed in 2021 it would introduce a hydrogen fuel-cell “multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) model” – believed to be the Staria – by the end of 2023, but the model has yet to be unveiled.
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