2014 Hyundai Equus Signature on 2040-cars

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Hyundai leased 70 Tucson fuel-cell vehicles in first year

Since going on sale in the early summer of 2014, Hyundai has leased around 70 of its hydrogen fuel-cell-powered Tucson CUVs. That's the number that Mike O'Brien, Hyundai's vice president of corporate and product planning, revealed at a green vehicle event in Huntington Beach, CA, this week. There's a reason for the low number, O'Brien said. "Of course, everybody asks 'Why 70?' and it's basically tied to the number of fuel stations that are available," he said. "We were the first to actually pass over ownership of the vehicle, it's not a test program. It helps people put their money on the table, and they lease the car from us and it's their car. The customers that we've leased the vehicle to are ones that live close to a fuel station. "Right now there is less than 10 in the state of California. By the end of this calendar year, there should be in the mid-20s. And then, of course, under Gov. Jerry Brown's $200 million towards construction, I believe about 100 stations [will come online] through the end of the next couple of years. As those stations get built out, we're taking more and more applications for vehicle sales." In January 2014, O'Brien told AutoblogGreen that 88,000 people had expressed an interest in owning a fuel-cell Tucson. O'Brien said that Hyundai needs the customers to be close to a hydrogen station so that driving the car feels similar to what they're used to doing. "We just want to make sure there is a satisfying experience of ownership, and that's the most important thing, to make that their ownership experience matches what they've experienced with a gasoline car," he said. The Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell can be leased for $499 a month, which includes free refueling. For the 2016 model year, the Tucson FCV gets HomeLink connectivity in the rear-view mirror and two new exterior colors, Hydro Blue and Chromium Silver, in addition to the already available Winter White. 2016 Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell Continues To Attract Zero-Emissions-Focused Customers With New Colors And Features World's First Mass-Produced Fuel Cell Vehicle Available For $499 per month Lease Includes Unlimited Free Hydrogen Refueling and At Your Service Valet Maintenance FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., May 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai's zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered Tucson Fuel Cell vehicle continues to satisfy and attract new customers focused on high-versatility and clean transportation.

Hyundai Group and LG Chem launch EV & Battery Challenge

The chairmen of Hyundai Motor Group and LG Chem sat down recently to explore ideas for collaboration that include a joint venture in Indonesia to produce electric vehicle batteries. One early result of their efforts is the EV & Battery Challenge, a global competition seeking startups with working technologies that will add value to battery development and production, and enhance customer's total EV ownership experience. Broken into two categories of innovation, the contest is looking for battery tech in the areas of management and maintenance, materials, reuse and recycling, and manufacturing and quality control. For electric vehicles, startups with innovations in the EV business model, charging, components, fleet management, and customer service are encouraged to apply. LG held a similar event last year open to new inventions specifically for batteries. Nearly 130 applicants applied from 27 countries. After a Battery Challenge Pitch Day at the LG Magok Science Park in South Korea, the company chose five finalists who received up to $2 million in funding through formal partnership with the conglomerate. LG said it didn't walk away from the 124 candidates not chosen, "continuing to work closely [with them] and offer support in terms of technological evaluation and future investment."    The EV & Battery Challenge dangles the same prizes — financial support and the chance to work in Hyundai and LG facilities with their tools, engineers, and knowledge.  Applicants need to have a non-commercialized working prototype clearly different from what's currently on the market, "strong expertise in the battery and mobility sector," and "a business model based on credible commercial and economic assumptions." The challenge is open from now until August 28. Hyundai and LG will review applications in September, then hold video interviews with a winnowed group in October and November. In November, finalists will be invited to a two-day workshop at Hyundai's CRADLE hub in Silicon Valley, where the automaker bases its innovation initiatives in the U.S.  New Energy Nexus, "an international non-profit that supports clean energy entrepreneurs with funds, accelerators, and networks," is overseeing the EV & Battery Challenge. The potential reward for LG is finding a mythical piece of battery tech to counter the million-mile packs supposedly on the verge of release from China's CATL or U.S.

What do J.D. Power's quality ratings really measure?

Check these recently released J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS) results. Do they raise any questions in your mind? Premium sports-car maker Porsche sits in first place for the third straight year, so are Porsches really the best-built cars in the U.S. market? Korean brands Kia and Hyundai are second and fourth, so are Korean vehicles suddenly better than their US, European, and Japanese competitors? Are workaday Chevrolets (seventh place) better than premium Buicks (11th), and Buicks better than luxury Cadillacs (21st), even though all are assembled in General Motors plants with the same processes and many shared parts? Are Japanese Acuras (26th) worse than German Volkswagens (24th)? And is "quality" really what it used to be (and what most perceive it to be), a measure of build excellence? Or has it evolved into much more a measure of likeability and ease of use? To properly analyze these widely watched results, we must first understand what IQS actually studies, and what the numerical scores really mean. First, as its name indicates, it's all about "initial" quality, measured by problems reported by new-vehicle owners in their first 90 days of ownership. If something breaks or falls off four months in, it doesn't count here. Second, the scores are problems per 100 vehicles, or PP100. So Power's 2015 IQS industry average of 112 PP100 translates to just 1.12 reported problems per vehicle. Third, no attempt is made to differentiate BIG problems from minor ones. Thus a transmission or engine failure counts the same as a squeaky glove box door, tricky phone pairing, inconsistent voice recognition, or anything else that annoys the owner. Traditionally, a high-quality vehicle is one that is well-bolted together. It doesn't leak, squeak, rattle, shed parts, show gaps between panels, or break down and leave you stranded. By this standard, there are very few poor-quality new vehicles in today's U.S. market. But what "quality" should not mean, is subjective likeability: ease of operation of the radio, climate controls, or seat adjusters, phone pairing, music downloading, sizes of touch pads on an infotainment screen, quickness of system response, or accuracy of voice-recognition. These are ergonomic "human factors" issues, not "quality" problems. Yet these kinds of pleasability issues are now dominating today's JDP "quality" ratings.