2008 Hyundai Sonata Limited on 2040-cars

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Dodge, Hyundai crowdsourced-funding sites deemed successes

What's not to love about crowdsourcing? This idea, after all, has given us Kickstarter as well Local Motors, but automakers are starting to use the social platform to sell more cars (or just drum up a little PR). Both Dodge and Hyundai have used "crowd-funding" recently, and while Automotive News is reporting that neither has racked up big sales with this gimmick, both automakers are pleased with the attention.
For Hyundai, it teamed up with website Motozuma.com to help customers crowdsource money for a down payment, and the automaker matched this amount up to $500. Last year, this helped Hyundai sell an extra 1,600 units, a fraction of its total 2012 sales. That figure is far larger than Dodge fared with the Dodge Dart Registry - it netted only two sales and a small number of individual options. This registry did help University of Southern California fraternity crowdsource $18,000 to buy a Dart for a local Meals on Wheels, however. Despite the low sales figures, Dodge and Hyundai are considering their crowdsourcing programs a success since it helped them connect with younger buyers.

Are we closer to a production version of the Genesis X Convertible?

Searching the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database for the alphanumeric "GT90" returns 21 results. All but four results are dead. Three of those four trademark requests come from Hyundai, one of them filed this month. As CarBuzz noted, on April 4, Hyundai asked to reserve the character logo for "GT90 Genesis" for two categories: Automobiles and sports cars. As usual, a trademark application doesn't mean we'll see the trademark used anywhere. The Korean automaker's been toying with this idea for years, though. In 2017, it requested to reserve the name "Genesis GT90," in 2020 it applied to protect the same GT90 Genesis logo in several categories that did not include sports cars. The suspicion is that the GT name will could be for a grand tourer based on one of the Speedium concepts revealed in the last few years. The GT90 Genesis filing comes about two months after Hyundai supposedly told U.S. dealers the Genesis X Convertible concept will enter production. Descriptions from the chairman of Genesis' national dealer advisory council laid out a flagship product to launch the brand into another uncharted reach, attempting to take Genesis in the same direction the Celestiq is attempting to take Cadillac. Peter Lanzavecchia told Automotive News about the possible production car, "I don't know if it's going to be over $200,000 or $300,000, but I guarantee we're going see a lot of Bentley Continental convertible trade-ins on that when it comes to our showrooms." Other luxury news and rumor in the background at Genesis have the head of product planning telling Autocar, "We do talk about developing ‘effortlessÂ’ [electric] powertrains — enough power to be enjoyable in all circumstances, and which satisfies the luxury experience," and a report that there's work on a One of One personalization division. Both tidbits would fit with the arrival of a top-shelf electric GT. And if one, why not more? CarBuzz found more applications for GT60, GT70, and GT80 filed in Cuba. Genesis has said it won't abandon the sedan segment, and it wants more coupes and convertibles. Many automakers have said EVs open up the business cases for those two-doors and droptops that have become even more niche in the past decade. For Genesis, a three-pronged approach of G sedans, GV crossovers, and GT coupes and convertibles could be the result.   Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Hyundai needs to make the Ioniq Scooter

In the mad rush that is an auto show press conference, sometimes the coolest stuff is sometimes barely mentioned, and often overshadowed, by the bigger news. Hyundai's awesome Ioniq Scooter concept is a perfect example of this. Revealed at this year's CES, it was given just 45 seconds of talk time in a 45 minute conference. The scooter's sleek design and clever charging spot struck me as the one of the most practical and fleshed out mobility solutions on display at the show. Now I'm on a one-man mission to convince Hyundai to build it. The Ioniq Scooter is a compact, collapsible, and lightweight electric scooter that (and this is my favorite part) stows and charges in the door pocket of the upcoming Hyundai Ioniq. You can park your car, pop out the scooter and ride what's referred to in the mobility industry as the "last mile." Driving is usually the easiest part of any journey. Roads are all connected and relatively easy to navigate. Everything after that - parking, walking, etc. - often takes just as much time and effort as driving. The scooter helps solve this problem. View 6 Photos For me, the little electric scooter was the best thing in Hyundai's sci-fi filled booth. The automaker brought out two working robot exoskeletons and a car concept that is literally meant to be built into your home. There was an autonomous Ioniq giving test rides down the Las Vegas strip. Despite all of that, all I wanted to do was break the glass case holding the scooter silently ride away. In person, the Ioniq scooter appears relatively lightweight and extremely compact. It's partially constructed from carbon fiber and has a small display that shows battery life, speed, and range. You use a small knob on the handle bar to accelerate and brake. Alternatively, you can slow down by pushing a pad over the rear wheel, just like on a kick scooter. Top speed is 12 mph and the total range is about 12 miles. It's unclear if the battery can be swapped out to extend the distance before recharging. The Ioniq scoter is just a prototype, so we have no idea how much it would cost to put it into production or if Hyundai has any plans to even do so. What we do know is that a working prototype exists and that we would love to get a chance to ride it. Like our endeavor to drive a Citroen C4 Cactus, I'm on a mission to ride the Ioniq scooter. In my eyes, this scooter is the modern equivalent to a Honda Motocompo, but more practical.