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2019 Hyundai Veloster Turbo Quick Spin Review | Now with actual 'velo'!

Hyundai finally seems to be figuring out driving dynamics. You know, suspensions that don't become flummoxed after hitting a mid-corner heave. Steering that does more than simply exist. A general driving experience that you may actually remember. Indeed, I'm going to remember the 2019 Hyundai Veloster Turbo, the latest Hyundai group car to demonstrate newfound dynamic talents. Fully redesigned, it picks up its predecessor's funky mantle, bringing over its unique three-door count and unusual hatchback rear, but actually satisfies the "velo" bit of its name. The old car was a dud, this one is not. Well, at least in Turbo guise, as no amount of chassis improvements can make the base 147-horsepower version go anywhere with immediacy. The Turbo packs Hyundai's 1.6-liter four-cylinder with 201 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. That's pretty much equal to the Honda Civic Si Coupe, as is its curb weight of 2,899 pounds. Though it doesn't sing the same melodically mechanical song as the Honda's, the Veloster's turbo four-cylinder nevertheless delivers a satisfying punch. It responds and feels like it belongs in a vehicle with sporting intentions. On a mountain road, the new Veloster is capable, poised and legitimately fun. When completing my local mountain road evaluation route, I was compelled to turn around and run it again — the usual indication of a dynamic job well-done. This handling boon also doesn't come at the expense of ride quality. Sure, it's on the firm side, but it's also not crashy or tiresome relative other sporty compact cars. I'd be curious to try it with the Veloster Turbo R-Spec's manual transmission, though, as the regular Turbo's seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual lacks the precision and smarts of VW's DSG and other such transmissions. In Smart or Sport mode, it's not quick enough to respond to throttle or braking inputs, let alone anticipate the need for them. In manual mode, the engine oddly hangs onto revs when upshifting. The tachometer drops down to a lower rev count, but the engine continues to sing for a split-second. It's unusual. Though this transmission performed well enough in a compact crossover like the Kona, a wannabe hot hatch like the Veloster might be asking too much. That, however, is not why the Veloster ultimately left me cold. While it excels on a mountain road, it is merely OK everywhere else. It just isn't alive and involving enough to make mundane drives a joy — much as a Civic Si or VW GTI can.

Hyundai will launch 26 green models through 2020

Hyundai Motor Group, which comprises both Hyundai and Kia, believes that launching a blitz of 26 green models through 2020 could place the Korean automaker among the leaders in the segment. Only Toyota would be larger in the electrified vehicle market, if Hyundai Motor's plan works, Automotive News reports. The 26 models run the gamut of the green car field, and they include at least 12 hybrids, six PHEVs, two EVs, and two hydrogen fuel cells, according to Automotive News. If customers latch onto them, Hyundai and Kia could move as many as 300,000 electrified vehicles a year by 2020 versus about 43,000 in 2015. Kia is responsible for at least 11 of these vehicles like the upcoming Niro crossover. Meanwhile, Hyundai wants the upcoming Ioniq (above) to challenge the Toyota Prius, and the Korean company has hybrid, PHEV, and EV versions on the way. To save money on the development of so many electrified vehicles, Hyundai Motor uses shared components. "For example, all our electric motors have the same diameter," Lee Ki-Sang, Hyundai's green powertrain boss, told Automotive News. "The power output is different, but we can just adjust the width of the core winding. Or for the motor controller, we standardized to use the same printed circuit boards." Trying to go from a relatively small player to a market leader is an audacious move, but it's especially risky right now. Gas prices are the cheapest in 12 years in the US, and green car sales are down in the US and in Europe. Toyota even predicts the inexpensive fuel could cut into Prius sales, and it's far more established than Hyundai's models. The South Korean company could have an even tougher time because these efficient vehicles still lose money for now. "Our target is before 2020, we would like to make profits on these eco-friendly vehicles," Lee told Automotive News. Related Video:

Hyundai, Kia and U of M studying 'highway hypnosis'

Next up on the hot-button list of things that can kill you behind the wheel: "highway hypnosis." That's the zombie-like, autopilot phase you get into on a long highway drive when there isn't much to distract you, like curves or traffic. Digging further into what it is and how to combat it, Hyundai-Kia engineers and the University of Michigan are commencing a study that will measure brainwave activity in order to track the body's slide into highway hypnosis.
We're not sure how much overlap this has with Mercedes-Benz's Attention Assist, which tracks more than 70 in-car parameters to determine when you're not focused on the road anymore. That system is billed as an alarm against fatigue, in our experience it does more than that - if you use your phone while driving, for instance, it will chirp.
They don't know what form a warning system will take yet, but Hyundai-Kia plans to develop a method for warning drivers when they being to zone out. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were more than three thousand deaths and nearly 400,000 injuries due to distracted driving in 2011.