Hyundai Europe CEO Xavier Martinet has suggested that the EU's forthcoming new M1E category could be an "interesting" way of making more cheap small cars available in the market – but said clarity is needed on exactly how the framework will make it easier for car makers to build such cars profitably.
Full details of the M1E class remain to be confirmed, but the general aim is to relax certain legislation for smaller cars so that manufacturers need integrate less technology and equipment, thereby making them cheaper to build and keeping the list price down for buyers.
The move has been welcomed by Dacia, BYD, Peugeot and Citroën, which have each hinted at plans to introduce new entry electric cars in Europe, pending confirmation of the regulation details, and Martinet concurred that M1E could be the gateway to a new generation of cheap small car in Europe.
He said that Hyundai "fully agrees" with the move to relax certain regulations – "if the EU wants to propose more affordable EVs for European customers, we fully agree" – but added that car makers need concrete details of which rules exactly would be relaxed.
"Now the question is: how far does the EU want to go in terms of some other considerations for that equation? And this is where we're waiting for the details," he continued.
"The question I have about the regulations is: which ones do you want to take away? Is it safety? Is it some of the engine specs?
"But then there's confusion between electric and ICE, because some people are asking to go back to ICE for small cars, which is not what's planned in M1E.
"So we've not seen the end of the story yet. There's still a lot of information on our side we're waiting for."
However, Martinet welcomed any move to relax "all the added regulation we've been having year after year", which "is really increasing the cost of cars in Europe", and noted that the European car industry is especially heavily regulated compared with other global markets.
"This is where Europe as a whole is certainly regulating the market way too much versus what the others are doing. If you look at the global 'tectonic plates', in terms of regulation, Europe is way beyond what the US actually are doing."
Martinet didn't say whether Hyundai would take advantage of the new rules in launching a circa-£15k city EV but highlighted the success of the Inster – the firm's current cheapest EV and one of Europe's most popular small EVs – as an indication of the firm's strength in small cars.
"[M1E] is trying to propose to European customers an affordable EV that meets their needs in terms of spec, equipment, range and price - and we think we've met that pretty well with Inster. And when you have the success story of Inster in 2025, it opens up new questions for the future but based on a very solid foundation."
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