2014 Hyundai Elantra Gt Base on 2040-cars

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Hyundai considering pickup after good reaction to Santa Cruz

The Hyundai HCD-15 Santa Cruz pickup concept was one of the stars of the 2015 Detroit Auto Show and even earned fifth place on Autoblog's Editors' Choice list of favorite debuts. The strong response might have been enough to get it made. Hyundai research and development director Park Byung-cheol said that the company was considering building the truck, according to Reuters. He warned, though, that there were still some obstacles in the way of the pickup arriving to showrooms without saying what those were. Rumors about Hyundai considering a pickup in the US go back several years but were fruitless. The Santa Cruz's unveiling really reignited things, though. The North American arm of the Korean brand reportedly chose Detroit for the debut so that foreign executives could see the media reaction to the concept. That gamble might have paid off. Hyundai's pickup at dealers might not look like the Santa Cruz concept, though. The company said the version in Detroit had nothing production-ready about it and even lacked an interior. At the time, a platform still hadn't been decided on, and the brand had several internal design studies underway. Related Video:

Audi and Hyundai team up to boost hydrogen fuel cell cars

Hyundai agreed a deal with Audi on Wednesday to collaborate on hydrogen car technology, hoping to boost an energy segment that has lagged behind battery electric vehicles. The South Korean firm wants to increase the sales and acceptance of hydrogen cars, which are propelled by electricity generated by fuel cells but have been held back by a lack of infrastructure and the push for battery electric vehicles by the likes of Tesla. The pair will be able to access each other's intellectual property and share components, including any new parts developed by Audi, which is responsible for hydrogen fuel cell technology in the Volkswagen Group, the world's biggest car seller. Hyundai hopes that the move will create greater demand for vehicles such as its ix35 model and bring down costs to make the technology profitable. "We want to provide to our component suppliers more chance and we want to have competition between component suppliers," Sae Hoon Kim, the head of Hyundai's R&D fuel cell group, told Reuters in an interview in London. "We also want to make them to have competition with other suppliers, and that competition will bring down the cost." Carmakers such as Toyota have touted the benefits of hydrogen vehicles, which take less time to refuel than the recharge times of battery electric cars, but are expensive and suffer from a lack of refuelling stations. Many carmakers are focusing on battery electric vehicles, which can take between half an hour and half a day to recharge, but are increasingly able to use a growing network of charging points. Auto firms are teaming up to share the cost of developing greener technologies to replace combustion engines as regulators around the world crack down on emissions. GM and Honda have a partnership to jointly develop electric vehicles with hydrogen fuel cells that are expected to go on sale in 2020, while BMW is working with Toyota. Kim said that a toughening of European Union carbon emission limits in 2025 would create a need for more hydrogen cars. Hyundai sold 200 such models last year and expects to sell thousands this year, but Kim said profitability was still far off. "100,000 or 300,000 vehicles per year per company, when that comes, I think we can make money," he said. Reporting by Costas PitasRelated Video: Image Credit: Getty Auto News Green Plants/Manufacturing Audi Hyundai Alternative Fuels Future Vehicles Hydrogen Cars

Hyundai dealerships getting global makeover

In the near future, almost no matter where you're at in the world - whether in Mexico or France - you may not be able to tell an immediate difference between Hyundai dealers. The Korean brand plans to remove some of the diversity from its showrooms in favor of a unified design everywhere outside of the US by about 2020.
The plan is called the Global Dealership Space Identity, and the end result features a modern, open showroom with floor-to-ceiling glass to look in and a bronze-colored roof section (pictured above). The goal of the unified design "is to strengthen our Modern Premium brand consistency across all dealerships, proving premium emotional experiences related to our brand and increase interaction with customers," said Hyundai spokesperson Sookjin Hwang to Autoblog via email.
The ball is already rolling on the plan with the cues being implemented at new dealers in Mexico and about 42 other showrooms worldwide. In the future even Canada may use it, according to Automotive News. "Hyundai Motor plans to fully implement the new identity worldwide within five years (2014~2018). The exact timing for each country will be different."