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Hyundai Ioniq hybrid and EV sales begin this month

South Korean automaker Hyundai will start selling its Ioniq hybrid and electric-vehicle variants at some US dealerships by the end of the month. While reports have surfaced saying the Ioniqs may be available as soon as this week, Hyundai spokesman Jim Trainor confirmed to Autoblog that the Ioniq EV and hybrid would arrive at dealers towards the end of February. California will be the primary EV target from launch, naturally. Hyundai got some good news in late December when the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rated the Ioniq Hybrid's combined fuel efficiency at 55 miles per gallon, or three mpg ahead of the standard 2017 Toyota Prius hatchback. Less rosy is the Ioniq EV's single-charge range, which falls well short of the magic 200-mile number reached by Chevrolet's recently-debuted Bolt, checking in at 124 miles. Still, the Ioniq EV trumps the Chevrolet Bolt in terms of miles-per-gallon-equivalent (i.e. electricity used per mile), getting a 136-mpge combined rating versus the Bolt's 119. The Ioniq Plug-in Hybrid (or the "Blue") gets 58 mpg combined and can go as far as 31 miles on electricity alone. That variant may see the light of day as soon as September. The automaker first showed off versions of the four-door sedan at last year's New York Auto Show. Hyundai, which currently sells a hybrid version of the Sonata, is planning to have as many as 14 electrified-powertrain vehicles by 2020. Green-car watchers are hoping the Ioniq EV and hybrids won't be low-volume affairs and will add to the momentum already generated this year by the introduction of the Bolt as well as higher demand for models such as the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Honda Accord Hybrid. Last month, total US green-car sales were up about 27 percent from a year earlier, while plug-in sales surged 74 percent. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2017 Hyundai Ioniq: New York 2016 View 11 Photos Image Credit: Drew Phillips Green Hyundai AutoblogGreen Exclusive Hatchback Electric Hybrid hyundai ioniq hyundai ioniq electric hyundai ioniq plug-in

Hyundai-Kia names former Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley designer as design chief

Luc Donckerwolke, former designer for both Bentley, Audi and Lamborghini, is succeeding Peter Schreyer as the lead designer for both Hyundai and Kia. This follows a significant shuffle within the Korean automaker's upper management. Schreyer — himself a former Volkswagen Group designer — will head design management. Chung Eui-sun, the son of company chairman and CEO Chung Mong-koo, was promoted as executive vice chairman. The head of Hyundai Motor America, Kyung Soo-lee, is leaving his position after just more than a year on the job. That's a lot of moving pieces at the top of Korea's largest automaker. Donckerwolke has been with Hyundai-Kia since 2015 when he left the Volkswagen Group to take over Genesis design. Some of his most famous designs include the Lamborghini Murcielago, Lamborghini Gallardo, Bentley Flying Spur and Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6. Schreyer led the design of the original Audi TT and has helped push forward Hyundai and Kia. The pair's influence can be seen and felt throughout the company's lineup. According to Reuters, part of the shakeup within the leadership follows a company announcement that third-quarter profits have fallen, sending shares to their lowest level in nine years. Related Video:

Hyundai-Kia claims 'greenest' title from Honda, Big Three still big losers

Let's start with the good news. On average, any new car you buy in the US today will be 43 percent cleaner than any average new car in 1998. Here's some more good news, for Korea anyway, Hyundai-Kia has been named the cleanest automaker in the latest study by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which looked at 2013 model year vehicles sold between October 2012 and September 2013 from the top eight automakers (by volume). The bad news? The big three Detroit automakers are, on average, still making the dirtiest cars in the showroom. The big three Detroit automakers are, on average, still making the dirtiest cars in the showroom. The problem for Ford, General Motors and Chrysler lies in their trucks, which sell well but tend to have pretty bad fuel economy (compared to sedans, at least). The UCS calculates its list by averaging "the per-mile emissions for each light-duty vehicle sold by each automaker" and then factors in "the fuel economy, fuel type, and sales volume of each type of vehicle sold by each automaker" and "the upstream global warming emissions from producing and distributing the fuel used by each vehicle, as well as emissions from the vehicles themselves." That all means that, the more trucks you sell, the worse you're gonna do. Then again, the more trucks you sell with 18 mpg, the more you're helping drivers put CO2 into the air, so the UCS is doing a fair comparison of the things that this study is trying to track. More details on the methodology are available on page six of the study PDF. In case you were wondering (we were), UCS did make sure to use the revised mpg numbers for Hyundai and Kia models that were originally overstated. Hyundai has apologized for and fixed those figures and even with the new, corrected numbers, Hyundai's total emissions are dropping at a rate of about three percent a year, enough for it to take the greenest company title for the first time. In fact, this is the first time that an automaker other than Honda has come out on top in the UCS ranking, which has been released six times now, including the first one in 2000 (which looked at 1998 model year data). In 2010, Honda was almost knocked off the winner's perch by both Hyundai and Toyota, but managed to hold on. Chrysler, on the other hand, came in dead last (again) in the ranking of the top eight automakers, snagging the "dirtiest tailpipe" award once (again). Read the UCS' press release below.