Hyundai Motor is considering Ioniq P as the name for an affordable electric sports utility vehicle under development for the Indian market. Its strategy is to secure price competitiveness through local production and target India’s rapidly growing electric vehicle market.

Electrek reported on Oct. 29 that Hyundai mentioned during its third-quarter earnings conference call that it plans to introduce Ioniq P in India following the new Bayon. Hyundai’s Indian unit has not officially confirmed the Ioniq P name. The small electric SUV known by the development name HE1i could be launched under that name.

The new vehicle is being developed as a mass-market EV that is smaller and cheaper than the existing Creta Electric. Earlier this year, a camouflaged test vehicle was spotted near the Sriperumbudur plant outside Chennai in India, and a test drive has recently been seen in South Korea.

The HE1i marking attached to the test vehicle is also cited as a basis for the name speculation. Existing Ioniq EVs also used separate code names during development, prompting analysis that the new vehicle could join the Ioniq lineup.

Tarun Garg (Tarun Garg), chief executive of Hyundai’s Indian unit, said the recently launched Bayon is the starting point of a strategy to expand new products. He said the company plans to launch an India-only affordable EV in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027, which corresponds to January to March 2027 under India’s fiscal year.

The new vehicle is to be produced at Hyundai’s Chennai plant. Detailed specifications such as battery capacity, driving range and selling price have not been disclosed.

Hyundai is fostering India as a key production and export base. It plans to introduce 26 new and facelifted models in the local market by 2030, and plans at the group level to invest $15.5 billion, or about 20.73 trillion won, by 2032.

Hyundai’s third-quarter global sales fell about 10 percent from a year earlier, but sales in India rose 9.5 percent to 150,039 vehicles. It also plans to expand production capacity in India to 1.1 million vehicles a year by 2030.

Hyundai is expected to broaden its sales base in the local EV market with an affordable electric SUV and to review the possibility of exporting it overseas later.