There hasn't been a lot of wow news or wow production numbers at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, but a little bit of both were on display at the Hyundai show stand. Amid a flutter of dancers flouncing about with white sheets, Hyundai Blue Drive was unveiled, the company's new short- and long-term strategy for environmentally friendly and fuel-saving technologies.
Here are some of the many highlights.
The present government CAFE mandates call for manufacturers to achieve a fleet average of 35 mpg by 2020. Hyundai's goal is to achieve that number by 2015.
First up in trying to meet this goal are the Accent Blue and Elantra Blue, which follow the Chevy Cobalt XFE model. They feature revised transmission calibration, low-rolling-resistance tires and smoother airflow bodywork. Hyundai claimed these two models will be the cheapest in each respective lineup. There was no word of just how much fuel savings there would be.
The second falls into the warm and fuzzy category. The Genesis Forest Project will offset the estimated 93,170 tons of CO2 generated by every Hyundai Genesis sold in its first year of production through conservation and reforestation of 3,000 acres of Brazilian tropical rain forest. The company CEO has adopted a howler monkey (attribution forthcoming).
Third was Hyundai's new Theta GDI Turbo engine, which is a 2.0-liter four-cylinder utilizing direct injection and turbocharging to achieve upwards of 286 horsepower, while achieving a 15-20 percent fuel economy improvement over similarly powered V6 engines. This engine will appear in a variety of Hyundai products, including the production version of the HED-5 i-Mode crossover also shown here in Los Angeles.
The big news, however, was Hyundai's announcement of its new Hybrid Blue Drive system, which uses Lithium Polymer battery technology. According to John Krafcik, vice president of product development and strategic planning for Hyundai North America, lithium polymer batteries leapfrog both nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion battery technologies as they save weight, produce less heat and are less complex to manufacture. The secret is the use of a polymer gel electrolyte stored in a more compact rectangular pouch (versus the liquid lithium-ion electrolyte stored in cylindrical containers) that results in a 20-percent better packaging effciency, along with greater thermal and mechnical (read: crash) resistance.
More info in the Inside Line News Story of Blue Drive.
This technology will first appear in North America in the next-generation Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima due in 2010 (I've seen this Sonata at Hyundai's proving grounds and it looks very sharp). This will be a parallel hybrid with a 30 kW motor attached to a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and six-speed automatic transmission. In the Korean market, however, lithium polymer batteries will power the electric motor in the Kia Forte Hybrid, which utilizes a liquid propane internal combustion engine.
Hyundai and Kia aren't developing a dedicated hybrid model, but are instead working on a dedicated plug-in hybrid model in another effort to skip development steps. -- James Riswick, Automotive Editor
For more information on Hyundai and Kia's green initiatives, see this Green Car Advisor entry.
ateixeira says:
12:01 PM, 11/20/08
Generally speaking Hyundais have been a bit lagging in fuel economy so it's good to see they're trying to address that area. Mostly I think their products simply weigh more than competitors from Honda and Toyota do.