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Hyundai's all-new 2018 hydrogen-powered CUV comes into focus

It's no secret that Hyundai has plans for hydrogen-powered vehicles beyond the currently available Tucson Fuel Cell. Ever since the debut of the Intrado concept at the Geneva Motor Show in early 2014, Hyundai has been dropping hints about what the new big-ish H2 vehicle will offer. We say "big-ish" because Hyundai Motor Group's director of eco-vehicle development, Ahn Byung-ki, told Automotive News that the next-gen hydrogen powertrain will find a home in a "totally new" model that will be "somewhere between a CUV and SUV." So, whatever fancy new automotive segment that phrase happens to define – MUV, for middleweight utility vehicle? – is what Hyundai's new hydrogen offering will be. Under the hood, the upcoming vehicle will use a fuel cell that doesn't need as much platinum and will have a bigger battery and a smaller motor. We had originally heard that this new hydrogen CUV/SUV would arrive in 2020, but Ahn said that the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea will be "a big event. That's always a good opportunity for PR." With the Intrado concept, Hyundai said it was, "far more than a styling exercise." We've since heard that Hyundai believes that a CUV/SUV model offers the best option for customers buying a fuel cell vehicle. Earlier this year, Hyundai's head of the company's fuel cell research, Sae-Hoon Kim, said that, "all customer feedback says range and boot space are the priorities." The Intrado concept had a supposed range of around 375 miles. What that would translate to outside of the fictional auto show universe is unknown, but it sounds like Hyundai is ready to make all of this more real. Related Video: Featured Gallery Hyundai Intrado Concept: Geneva 2014 View 16 Photos News Source: Automotive News – sub. req. Green Hyundai Green Automakers SUV Hydrogen Cars h2 hyundai intrado

Hyundai Santa Fe crossover teased as sporty with new safety features

Hyundai has released a teaser image of its upcoming fourth-generation 2019 Santa Fe crossover ahead of its world premiere next month and its official unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The crossover is due for a series of what Hyundai says is industry-first active safety features. The photo suggests the CUV has undergone a considerable redesign, with a longer, swept-back roofline and elongated body, plus a lower stance, giving it a more sporty look. The headlamps appear to be slightly narrower and less angular. It'll get safety features under Hyundai's Smart Sense system like Rear Occupant Alert, which monitors the rear seats to detect passengers and can let the driver know when they are leaving the car, and its Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning is improved with an added automatic braking function to help drivers when backing out of narrow areas with limited visibility, such as an alley. Hyundai sold 133,171 Santa Fe crossovers, including the Sport, in 2017, an increase of about 1.5 percent over 2016, to make it the brand's second top-selling vehicle after the Elantra. The model was last updated with an exterior facelift and new technology including a standard backup camera and new safety features for the 2017 model year. Image Credit: Hyundai Geneva Motor Show Hyundai Crossover 2018 Geneva Motor Show

Genesis designer Luc Donckerwolke talks new sedan, 'post-SUV' phase

Luc Donckerwolke's office at the Hyundai Research and Design center outside of Seoul looks like an Apple store, all polished concrete, metal and glass and a Miesian lack of ornamentation. This makes sense in an environment in which Donckerwolke, as head of design for the Hyundai and Genesis brands, is attempting to privilege transparency: enhancing communication and accessibility. "We have to break this kind of castle syndrome that the designers are in," Donckerwolke says. "It's all about opening up." This undermining of Korea's traditional orchestrated, hierarchical and executory structure is part of what has allowed Donckerwolke to create widely admired concepts such as the GV80 SUV and Essentia electric GT in just more than two years since he arrived from the VW Group leading design at Bentley, Lamborghini and Audi. And also to design the all-new G70 sport sedan that will be introduced to the U.S. market later this summer. We drove the G70 just before arriving for an exclusive one-on-one at Donckerwolke's R&D office, the first American journalists to visit. Although our time behind the wheel was brief, and we drove only the top-of-the-line, 365-horsepower, twin-turbocharged V6 version, we were impressed with the acceleration, the balance and the material quality. We also noted that the G70 is very good looking, with a distinctive, muscular and aggressive mien that feels true to the company's mission to be at once "Audacious, Progressive and Distinctly Korean." Like much of what we saw and experienced in contemporary Seoul, the car hosts a unique blend of influences from America, Europe and Asia while offering a harmony of line and a grounded sense of self that seems endemic to the peninsula. This global-but-flavored template is intentional. "We are not going to do Korean cartoons on wheels," Donckerwolke says. "We're not going to become a patriotic Korean movement. It's only about the essence of the Korean culture that we are using as an inspiration." One thing we could not help but notice is that the G70 is a sedan, joining a pair of older, Hyundai-based sedans, the G80 and G90, to complete the Genesis lineup. This feels somewhat inauspicious in the moment, especially for the American market where two-thirds of new-vehicle purchases are trucks and SUVs. "As you probably have seen when you've been driving around, sedans are extremely demanded here in Korea. And, you know, we have a huge market penetration here.