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

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Hyundai, Kia to put solar panels on vehicle roofs

Hyundai Motor Group said Wednesday that future Hyundai and Kia models will be equipped with solar panels capable of generating electricity as a way to increase fuel-efficiency and range and lower CO2 emissions. Hyundai says the solar panels will feature in the rooftops or hoods of select vehicles "after 2019" and will supplement traditional internal combustion, hybrid and battery-electric vehicles. The parent group said it's developing three different types of solar roof charging systems comprised of a solar panel, controller and battery. The first generation will be a silicon solar panel system mounted to the rooftops of hybrid models and capable of charging 30 to 60 percent of the battery per day, depending on weather conditions and other factors, starting as early as 2020. The second generation involves a semi-transparent solar roof system applied to a panoramic sunroof and capable of charging an electric-vehicle battery or a battery mounted on a gasoline engine. Hyundai says the latter configuration will help it increase vehicle exports, since solar-equipped ICE vehicles will be able to adhere to regulations limiting CO2 emissions. A third-generation system is being tested right now. It will add solar production capability in the hood and roof of EVs – but the companies don't provide more detail than that at this moment. "In the future, various types of electricity-generating technologies, including the solar charging system, will be connected to vehicles," said Jeong-Gil Park, executive vice president of engineering design at Hyundai Motor Group. "This will enable them to develop from a passive device that consumes energy to a solution that actively generates energy. The paradigm of the vehicle owner will shift from that of a consumer to an energy prosumer." To date, solar vehicle charging technology has mostly been for light-duty tasks, like cooling off the interior or trickle-charging a conventional battery, such as the system offered in the previous Nissan Leaf. Systems that do more than this have typically come with a very steep pricetag for modest capabilities. Panasonic has developed a 180-watt solar roof available for the Japanese version of the Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid that is capable of adding up to 3.7 miles of range per day – at an unspecified (as of this writing) but undoubtedly high cost. Elon Musk, unsurprisingly, has also discussed making a solar roof optional for the Tesla Model 3.

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 reveals all-new Sonata in South Korea

We've seen the spy shots. We've seen the teasers. We've even seen the finished product uncovered in its home market. But now Hyundai has officially taken the wraps off its new Sonata, consistently one of its top sellers in North America that was surpassed only recently in the sales charts by the smaller, cheaper and slightly newer Elantra. It's Hyundai's challenger to the likes of the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, Ford Fusion et al, which makes it a vital debut not only for Hyundai but for anyone in the market for a mid-size family sedan - and that's one of the biggest markets of all.
Set to be revealed at the New York Auto Show in a matter of mere weeks, the all-new 2015 Hyundai Sonata you see here is the latest representation of a more toned-down family design language which Hyundai calls Fluidic Sculpture 2.0, following the lead set by the new Genesis and away from the swoopy and sharply creased styling of the successful but stylistically divisive model it replaces. A good inch longer and wider than the outgoing Sonata, the new model is also over a third more rigid, thanks in no small part to the use of high-strength steel that now composes over half of the body's construction.
The all-new 2015 Hyundai Sonata follows the lead set by the new Genesis and away from the swoopy and sharply creased styling of the model it replaces.