2012 Hyundai Leather on 2040-cars

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Kia EV9 wins 2024 World Car of the Year and World Electric Car at New York Auto Show

The Hyundai Group refuses to release its kung-fu grip on winning prestigious vehicle awards, especially those for electric vehicles. In 2020, Kia took the overall World Car of the Year (WCOTY) title with the Telluride, won World Performance Car with the EV6 GT, and won the World Urban Car category with the Kia Soul EV. In 2021, after the Hyundai Group walked away with nothing but a free lunch, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 won the 2022 World Car of the Year laurels, plus World Electric Vehicle and World Car Design of the Year, followed in 2023 by the Hyundai Ioniq 6 winning the same three awards. Kia returns to the top step today, the new EV9 announced at the New York Auto Show as the 2024 World Car of the Year and World Electric Vehicle. Because the South Koreans like to do this in threes, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N won World Performance Car.  One hundred automotive scribes from 29 countries tested 38 vehicles for the main prize. The qualifications for entry are that a car must exceed 10,000 units in production annually, be on sale in at least two major global markets, and be priced below the luxury options in their respective regions. The EV9 beat the BYD Seal and the Volvo EX30 to the WCOTY title. Thirty-two cars vied for honors in the electric category, the EV9 outdoing the BMW i5 and the Volvo EX30. The German and the Swede aren't leaving New York with nothing, however, as the BMW 5 Series and i5 won the World Luxury Car title, and the EX30 won the World Urban Car trophy.  The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N outdid 16 other performance cars. We're sure there are engineers in Germany looking hard into their beer right now, the Ioniq 5 N pipping the M2 and XM to the victory circle.  The surprise of the bunch is the inclusion of the Toyota Prius, the global hybrid icon thrashing 70 other entries to win the 2024 World Car Design of the Year award. The other two finalists? The Ford Bronco and the Ferrari Purosangue. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the Prius. 

Ioniq Unlimited is Hyundai's way to get Millennials to subscribe to a car

Let's state at the outset that a lot of the questions you're going to have about the new Ioniq Unlimited vehicle subscription program from Hyundai will not be answered in this post. This isn't because we didn't ask - we did - but because Hyundai is holding on to those details until some time after the service starts, which will be some time after the first of the year. If we had to guess, we'll get the information we seek at CES in early January. But, hey, we're getting ahead of ourselves. What is Ioniq Unlimited, anyway? It's a subscription service for the all-electric version of the Ioniq. Available only in California (during the pilot program, anyway), Ioniq Unlimited is an Internet-based way to get yourself a 2017 Ionic Electric. There are no negotiations, just a single price that you pay every month. That price includes all sorts of things: registration and Doc fees, recharging fees, unlimited mileage, and scheduled maintenance. Oh, and there's no down payment. Hyundai vice president of corporate and product planning, Mike O'Brien, told AutoblogGreen that the idea here is to appeal to millennials, who like to keep their transactions simple. Sign once, pay once, be done. Hyundai is trying to, "make car ownership as easy as owning a phone," O'Brien said. Maybe that's why the subscription terms are 24 and 36 months. O'Brien would not say if people could cancel early. As for the price, all he would say is that it will be, "very competitive." Yeah, we want more information, too. Whatever they cost, the subscriptions will be good for Hyundai, too, since the cars will be treated like leased vehicles (and thus owned by Hyundai's captive leasing program) and totally counted in the company's CAFE numbers. We'll have more details, well, whenever Hyundai feels like it's time to share. For more information on Vehicle Subscription Services, check out the Complete Guide. Related Video:

Hyundai takes fully autonomous fuel cell vehicles on 70 mph road trip

Hyundai has announced three test vehicles based on its upcoming NEXO fuel cell vehicles, fitted with Level 4 autonomous technology, have completed a trial journey of 118 miles from Seoul to Pyeongchang across the Korean peninsula completely autonomously. It's a world first for fuel cell powered vehicles to reach Level 4 autonomous driving, which translates as "mind off" driving with no driver input needed. One of the interesting things about the NEXO fleet's trial is that it was performed in regular traffic at public highways, at speeds up to nearly 70mph. Earlier autonomous car testing in Korea has been performed on selected sections of road and at lower speeds than the highest allowed Korean highway speed reached in this trial. Hyundai says the test drive included following the traffic's flow, completing lane changes, and even handling motorway toll booths — and that the only human intervention needed was pressing "Cruise" and "Set" buttons on the three cars' steering wheels, to put them in autonomous mode. The NEXO has been designed as a hydrogen fuel cell car from the ground up, instead of the earlier, ICE-based Tucson FCEV. Hyundai claims a target range of 500 miles (NEDC) for the NEXO, for a single, five-minute hydrogen charge, and a system efficiency of 60 percent. On the run to CES from L.A. last month, Hyundai declared a real-world range of 360 miles for the tested NEXO; the 120-kW motor takes the fuel cell crossover to 60 mph in 9.9 seconds. The vehicles used in the South Korean trial use a combination of radar, lidar and cameras to monitor their surroundings, and some of these systems are already used in production Hyundai vehicles. At CES, Hyundai announced its partnership with Aurora Innovation, which is a Silicon Valley startup set up by former Alphabet Inc and Tesla engineers; the autonomous NEXOs are likely to feature Aurora's input. Hyundai sees commercialization of Level 4 vehicles taking place in 2021, though only in what it calls "pilot smart cities," or locations tailored to be connected enough to make the implementation of autonomous tech easier. "Fully" autonomous driving would be at commercial level by 2030. As for the vehicle itself, it features virtual assistant technology that is complemented with noise canceling to further turn the NEXO into a cocoon-like pod; there's also "Home Connect" tech which enables the passengers to use smart home gadgets remotely during their commute. Related Video: