2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.0l Turbo on 2040-cars

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Hyundai looking to add plant in Mexico

Mexico is rapidly becoming the go-to place for North American auto production, and companies including Toyota, General Motors, and Audi are all building new plants, expanding or shifting some production there. Now, Hyundai is investigating joining them in the future. "I'm sure that over the years we'll see production of Hyundai products in Mexico," Pedro Albarran, managing director for the automaker in Mexico, said to Bloomberg. Albarran indicates that a likely location for such a factory might be the state of Nuevo Leon, where Kia also has a forthcoming $1 billion plant. The site would be an ideal location near suppliers. It's probably going to be a while before any of Hyundai's models start coming out of Mexico. According to Bloomberg, the automaker wants to wait to make a final decision until sales there reach around 50,000 annual units, and that benchmark isn't expected until 2018. While Kia's plant is slated to have a capacity around 300,000 vehicles a year when it opens in 2016, Albarran thinks Hyundai might start smaller at just over 100,000 annual examples. Some of those would likely include subcompact models for the Mexican market. The Korean automaker was rumored to be looking into a factory south of the border as far back as 2013.

Kia, Hyundai testing big crossovers, and one looks like the Telluride

Big things are coming from Hyundai and Kia in the near future, and we mean literally. One of our spy photographers caught the companies each testing full-size crossover SUVs out in the snow. The Kia caught our attention in particular, because it looks quite a bit like the Kia Telluride concept from 2016. At the front of the Kia, the entire fascia looks boxy with nary a curve in sight. It also has low-set, squared-off headlights at the far edges; both prominent features on the concept, too. That theme carries over to the back, where the metal portion of the hatch looks plain and flat and is almost perfectly vertical. The glass area leans forward a bit. The taillights also look like those on the concept, with thin vertical portions that make a 90-degree turn inward at the top. A neat design touch not found on the concept are the slight glass extensions into the roof on each side of the windshield. When the concept Telluride was revealed, it was based on the Sorento platform and had a combined 400 horsepower. This power came from a 270-horsepower V6 and a 130-horsepower electric motor, which Kia claimed would provide 30 mpg in all-wheel-drive form. We expect that the Telluride will mainly be offered in non-hybrid forms, and perhaps in diesel form, since this prototype was testing alongside a Volvo XC90 diesel. But we also wouldn't necessarily rule out a hybrid variant like the concept. Kia and Hyundai both are getting serious about hybrids and electrification, and if Kia is targeting something like the XC90, which itself offers a hybrid powertrain, it would make sense that Kia is planning to offer a competing product. A Kia executive said news about the production model is coming "soon," so we'll probably learn more about the production Telluride sometime this year, probably no earlier than the New York Auto Show. View 16 Photos As for the big Hyundai, it will likely take the space the newly downsized Santa Fe has vacated. We're not sure what it might be called, but the last time Hyundai had a crossover bigger than the Santa Fe, it was called the Veracruz, so the name could make a return. Styling-wise, the front of this full-size crossover is right in line with the rest of Hyundai's new-generation crossovers. It has the split headlight design that first showed up on the Kona, with the lower lamps providing primary illumination, and the thin, scowling upper lamps working mainly as daytime running lights.

2019 Hyundai Kona Electric gets 250-mile range rating in the U.S.

Let's get the most salient details out of the way: The Hyundai Kona Electric will show up in California in the fourth quarter of 2018, and other "ZEV-focused states" will soon follow. We'd expect to see the Kona EV in dealerships along the East and West Coasts and in New England in early 2019. It'll have an estimated range of 250 miles from its 64 kWh lithium ion battery pack. Its electric motor sends 201 horsepower and 291 pound-feet of torque to the front wheels. Other markets get a lower-cost, entry-level model with less power and range, but the U.S. will only get this lone range-topping version. View 15 Photos Those specs put the U.S. Kona EV squarely into the thick of the burgeoning electric vehicle market, where it will compete with cars like the Chevy Bolt EV (238-mile range) and Tesla Model 3 (up to 220-mile range). The Nissan Leaf has a much lower 151-mile range. The Kona EV can be fully charged at Level 2 in in a little less than 10 hours. DC fast charging capability is standard on the Kona, and it can go from zero to an 80 percent charge in less than an hour. Cargo capacity stands at 19.2 cubic-feet, which is identical to the gas-powered Kona. The EV also benefits from a standard multi-link rear suspension setup in place of the standard gas-powered, front-wheel-drive model's low-tech torsion beam system. Normal, Eco, and Sport drive modes alter the steering feel and powertrain programming to either emphasize acceleration and performance or maximize range. Hyundai didn't make sweeping changes to the look of the standard Kona in its conversion into an electric vehicle. The helmet-shaped grille of the standard car gives way to a more aerodynamically efficient design with lightly debossed slashes and dashes. The door covering the charging port is also housed in the grille. Split lighting units remain front and rear, and thick plastic cladding lends a utilitarian look to the lifted hatchback profile. It doesn't scream 'electric vehicle' like the Toyota Prius or Hyundai's own Ionic, but differs sufficiently from the gas-powered Kona to make it easy to spot on the road. The rest of the Kona EV package is well-sorted for daily driving duties. A full suite of active and passive safety systems come standard as part of the Hyundai Smart Sense package, including forward collision avoidance with pedestrian detection, rear cross-traffic collision avoidance, blind-spot warning, and lane-keeping assist.