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Hyundai sets land speed record with fuel-cell Tuscon

The Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell certainly isn't a hydrogen-powered speed demon like the Buckeye Bullet, but the South Korean company's H2-fueled crossover is fast enough to hold its own land speed record. How many SUVs can claim that? Not too many, but that's because there simply aren't many hydrogen-powered vehicles around, let alone SUVs. Hyundai recently took a 2016 Tucson Fuel Cell to the Soggy Dry Lake Bed in California, and the efficient model claimed a new land speed record for a production hydrogen-powered SUV. Set to the always stirring Ride of the Valkyries, the automaker's video shows the Tucson whispering through the desert while leaving only a cloud of dust and drips of water behind. Rather than spoiling it, you need to watch the clip to find out just how fast the fuel cell-powered Tuscon can go. The Tucson uses its fuel cell stack to power to spin the front wheels with an electric motor that makes 134 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque. They are currently available to lease in Southern California, and the company delivered about 70 of them in the first year.

2014 Hyundai Veloster Turbo gets stripped-down, lower-cost R-Spec model

We Autoblog staffers have had our ups and downs with our long-term 2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo, but there's no question that the cheeky three-door hatchback has got its proponents. Case in point: at the recent driving event for the fire-breathing SRT Viper TA, none other than Ralph Gilles sauntered over to have a closer look at the matte grey Veloster we'd driven out to the track that day. Gilles had lots of praise for the Veloster styling; not out of line with similar sentiments we've heard all year long.
We digress slightly, but the larger point is that there still seems to be a lot of interest in the Veloster, and Hyundai has plans to fully explore potential new marketplace niches for the car with this all-new, 2014 Veloster Turbo R-Spec.
Following on with the formula for R-Spec models to date, the new Veloster is not a higher-performance Turbo, but rather one that is more affordable. The theory goes that a de-contented Veloster Turbo hits the sweet spot for those who are interested in tuning the car for performance, a group that will probably not need the higher spec comfort and connectivity content that the standard Turbo ships with.

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: