Hyundai is the latest car maker to unleash a new electric vehicle on the market, and it has clear intentions of taking down the market-leading Tesla Model 3.

The Ioniq 5 is a bold new family-size crossover to be launched under the Korean manufacturer's Ioniq' electric car sub-brand this summer.

Reports suggest entry models will cost less than £40,000 - when subtracting the value of the Government's £3,000 plug-in car grant - and it will be available with a choice of two battery sizes and a maximum driving range of 298 miles on a single charge.

Only models of the likes of Porsche's ultra-expensive Taycan electric sports car have provided 800V capability until now. 

With it, the Hyundai supports up to 220kW DC charging, meaning a compatible rapid device can boost the battery capacity from 10 per cent to 80 % in 18 minutes. Customers will be able to add around 100km (62 miles) of range in just 5 minutes, the company claims.

Also unique at this price point is the facility for vehicle-to-grid charging, which isn't yet available on EV rivals.

It means that the car can not only become a mini generator to power devices but also push electricity back into the grid when not in use.

This could have financial benefits to motorists who could choose to supply energy to the network at peak times when it's most expensive and then draw it back during cheaper periods. 

While this won't challenge the range-topping Tesla Model S Performance (which can hit 60mph in 3.1 seconds but costs £60,000), it does mean the Ioniq 5 will be a good match for the more affordable variant of the UK maker's smallest vehicle. 

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Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation announced today that they have developed the world’s first predictive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Connected Shift System, enabling the vehicle to automatically shift to the optimal gear after identifying the road and traffic conditions ahead. Hyundai and Kia plan to apply the technology to future vehicles. During system development, the companies filed about 40 major patents in South Korea and abroad.

While the technologies used to automatically shift depend on drivers’ preferences, such as Smart Drive Mode – available on most current Hyundai and Kia models – ICT Connected Shift System is the first ICT to automatically shift the gear according to road and traffic conditions.

ICT Connected Shift System uses intelligent software in the Transmission Control Unit (TCU) that collects and interprets real-time input from underlying technologies, including 3D navigation equipped with a precise map of the road as well as cameras and radar for smart cruise control. The 3D navigation input includes elevation, gradient, curvature and a variety of road events as well as current traffic conditions. Radar detects the speed and distance between the vehicle and others, and a forward-looking camera provides lane information.

Using all of these inputs, the TCU predicts the optimal shift scenario for real-time driving situations through an artificial intelligence algorithm and shifts the gears accordingly. For example, when a relatively long slow down is expected and radar detects no speed irregularities with the car ahead, the transmission clutch temporarily switches to neutral mode to improve fuel efficiency.

When Hyundai and Kia tested a vehicle with an ICT Connected Shift System on a heavily curved road, the frequency of shifts in cornering was reduced by approximately 43 percent compared to vehicles without the system. Accordingly, the system also reduced the frequency of brake operation by approximately 11 percent, thereby minimizing driving fatigue and brake wear.

When rapid acceleration was required to enter a highway, the driving mode automatically switched to Sport Mode at the merge, making it easier to join the traffic flow. After merging with traffic, the vehicle automatically returned to its original driving mode, enabling safe and efficient driving.

In addition, the engine brakes were automatically applied upon release of the accelerator pedal by determining speed bumps, downhill slopes and location of the speed limit change on the road. The changes in distance from the front car were detected by the front radar to adjust appropriate transmission gear automatically, which improved driving quality.

The system is also in line with autonomous technology, which is developing day by day. The ICT Connected Shift System will deliver both improved fuel efficiency and stable driving experience in the era of autonomous vehicles by providing improved performance in response to real-time road and traffic conditions.

Hyundai and Kia are planning to further develop the ICT Connected Shift System into an even more intelligent transmission technology that can communicate with traffic signals based on LTE or 5G communication and identify drivers’ tendencies, resulting in further refinement of gear-shift control.

“Vehicles are evolving beyond simple mobility devices into smart mobility solutions,” said Byeong Wook Jeon, Head of Intelligent Drivetrain Control Research Lab. “Even a traditional area of the automobile, such as the powertrain, is becoming a high-tech technology optimized for smart mobility through efforts to integrate ICT and artificial intelligence technologies.”

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Bitcoin surged to another record on Saturday after reaching more than $1 trillion in market value for the first time, leaving some of its biggest backers in a state of wonderment.

In a tweet, Elon Musk said Bitcoin prices “seem high." The world’s richest person was replying to Peter Schiff -- a crypto skeptic and gold bug -- who said the precious metal is better than Bitcoin and fiat money.

“Money is just data that allows us to avoid the inconvenience of barter," Musk tweeted. “That data, like all data, is subject to latency & error." In the following post, he added, “that said, BTC & ETH do seem high lol."

Musk earlier called Bitcoin a “less dumb" version of cash. The largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 3.4% to a record high of $57,527 on Saturday before paring gains to $57,040 at 1:26 p.m. in New York. It’s surged 56% since the end of January and more than quadrupled last year. For several years after its debut more than a decade ago, Bitcoin traded for just a few cents.

Crypto believers are dueling with skeptics for the dominant narrative around the climb: the former see an asset being embraced for its ability to hedge risks such as inflation, while the latter sense a precarious mania riding atop waves of monetary and fiscal stimulus.

Musk gave impetus to Bitcoin joining the mainstream when Tesla Inc. said it invested $1.5 billion and was prepared to begin accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment for its cars. According to Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities, Tesla has made a profit of about $1 billion over the past month from that bet.

“To put this in perspective, Tesla is on a trajectory to make more from its Bitcoin investments than profits from selling its EV cars in all of 2020," Ives wrote in a note Saturday.

Traditional finance officials who have seen little value in the digital currency see the surge as part of a larger speculative bubble. Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, said the dramatic rise in values of Bitcoin and Tesla was driven by retail investors in much the same manner that led to last month’s surge in GameStop Corp. shares. Tesla gained more than 700% last year.

“With all due respect: What’s Tesla been? Why was Tesla up?" Lutnick said Friday on Bloomberg TV. “It’s because retail kept buying it. Why is Bitcoin where it is? Because retail keeps buying it. This is just another form of the same thing. GameStop was Bitcoin and Tesla."

Still, investors haven’t failed to notice the outperformance compared with traditional assets. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index has towered over the returns of stocks, gold, commodities, and bonds so far this year.

Advocates such as former hedge fund manager and Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz are seeking to position themselves for even bigger gains.

Galaxy’s trading desk is one of several that are providing Bitcoins for the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, the first-ever approved. The Toronto Stock Exchange-listed fund debuted Thursday. CI Global Asset Management filed this week in Canada to offer the CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF. Galaxy Digital will act as the Bitcoin sub-advisor and execute trades on behalf of the proposed ETF. None have been approved in the US

“Crypto is being institutionalized at an accelerating rate," Novogratz said in an interview Friday with Bloomberg. “It’s all part of this accelerating evolution of being a store of value."

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