At the close of his presentation at this year’s Auto China show, Li Fenggang, president of Beijing Hyundai Motor, surprised the audience by asking them to lift LED boxes placed on their seats.

“We’ll use this beam of light to kick off Hyundai’s new journey in China,” he said, raising the device stamped with the logo of Ioniq, the new brand the Korean carmaker has just launched in mainland China.

After years of lacklustre performance in the country, Hyundai was preparing to regain lost ground by relying on local technologies to build a new generation of electric vehicles (EVs) tailored to local customers, Li said.

The world’s third-largest carmaker by deliveries took the spotlight on April 24, the first day of the Beijing show that has become the world’s largest car exhibition.

The Korean manufacturer is one of several international marques seeking to counter the rise of home-grown rivals. Together with Chinese partner BAIC Group, Hyundai has committed an additional 8 billion yuan (US$1.17 billion) to their joint venture, Beijing Hyundai.

At the event, which runs through Sunday, Hyundai is showcasing its first production model under the new brand, the Ioniq V electric sedan – one of 20 the carmaker plans to design and build for the Chinese market over the next five years.