2014 Kia Cadenza Sx Limited on 2040-cars

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Hyundai sales slump in China over North Korea, standoff with Chinese partner

BEIJING/SEOUL — Hyundai is at loggerheads with its Chinese partner over efforts to cut supplier costs, as they grapple with cutthroat competition and the impact of a standoff between Beijing and Seoul. Hyundai, along with affiliate Kia, has been caught up in a political row over a missile defense system that is being deployed in South Korea, but opposed by China, as tensions grow over North Korean missile tests and last week's test of a nuclear bomb the North claims can be mounted on a missile. Sales of Hyundai cars in China have been falling, part of a backlash against South Korean brands over the missile system that China views as a threat to its own national security. On Tuesday, South Korea asked the United States to lift a limit on the explosive payloads it can use in the missile system. This as a North Korean missile, believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, was being tracked by intelligence services being moved on the ground toward North Korea's west coast and a possible launch site. That has come against the backdrop of ever tougher competition from local Chinese automakers. Until last year, Hyundai and Kia ranked third in China by sales. But Hyundai's sales alone have slumped 41 percent from January to July, fraying relations with local partner BAIC Motor Corp and making this the biggest crisis since Hyundai entered the Chinese market in 2002. Last month, Hyundai suspended production at its four China plants for a week after a French supplier refused to provide fuel tanks when its bills went unpaid. On Tuesday, Hyundai suspended production at one of its plants in China after a German firm went unpaid. Hyundai and BAIC — whose Beijing Hyundai joint venture is a 50:50 partnership — are divided over how to solve the issue of suppliers and tougher competition. Hyundai wants to protect its South Korean supply chain, while BAIC favors shifting to cheaper Chinese suppliers to cut costs, the people said. "BAIC wants to solve this aggressively and is ... asking Hyundai to change its sourcing strategy significantly and immediately," said the head of a Hyundai supplier based in Seoul, adding the idea was to source more locally from cheaper suppliers in China. Hyundai wants to solve this more gradually "over perhaps 5-10 years and do so in phases," the person said. BAIC declined to comment.

2021 Kia K5 fuel economy tops out at 32 mpg combined

In May, the EPA's FuelEconomy.Gov site listed three sets of initial fuel economy figures for the 2021 Kia K5, a move that helped confirm the end of the Optima name. The EPA has fiddled with the data set since then — the site doesn't list an all-wheel drive K5 anymore, for instance — but Kia has done us the favor of providing complete mpg numbers for every K5 trim except the flagship GT. The entry-level K5 LX with front-wheel drive gets 29 miles per gallon in the city, 38 on the highway, and 32 combined. This lines up with a model on the EPA site that's listed with stop/start on the 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. Most notably, the K5 LX sips a lot less fuel than the entry-level 2020 Kia Optima LX. The Optima LX houses a 2.4-liter four-cylinder with 185 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque — five horses up but 12 lb-ft down on the K5 — and gets 24 city, 32 highway, 27 combined. And the K5 only costs $100 more than the Optima. Among the competitive set, the in-house rival Hyundai Sonata in entry-level SE trim gives up one mile per gallon in the city to the LX, otherwise the two are equal. The Sonata SE, though, gets motivated by a 2.5-liter four-cylinder with 191 hp and 181 lb-ft. The Sonata SEL Plus with the same 1.6-liter as the Kia but costing $4,000 more returns 27 city, 36 highway, 31 combined. Outside the fold, the Toyota Camry ultimately evens out the fuel economy score in delivering 28 mpg city, 39 highway, 32 combined. The Honda Accord edges all comers with 30 mpg city, 38 mpg highway, and 33 combined thanks to its continuously variable transmission; the other three shift through eight-speed automatics. The front-wheel drive K5 LXS, EX, and GT-Line all return 27 mpg city, 37 mpg highway, and 31 mpg combined. The figures match a K5 model on the EPA site that omits the stop/start system on the 1.6-liter, but we can't see where Kia has mentioned a stop/start system in its K5 release materials. About 100 pounds difference in curb weight covers all four trims that we have info on so far. This would appear to indicate the lack of the fuel-saving tech on the three trims causing slightly lower fuel economy as opposed to extra luxuries weighing matters down. Only two trims for now come with the option of all-wheel drive, the LXS and GT-Line. When the K5 GT arrives, it will only come with all-wheel drive. Check the box to send power to all the wheels, and both variants deliver 26 mpg city, 34 mpg highway, 29 mpg combined.

Next-gen Kia Sedona drops more camo, shows KV7 cues

It was just two weeks ago that we saw our first glimpse of the 2015 Kia Sedona testing in full camouflage, but now Kia has stripped away some of the heavy cladding to give us an even better idea what its new minivan will look like. As we pointed out before, the next Sedona doesn't use as many design cues from the 2012 Kia KV7 as we initially hoped, but it should be interesting enough to stand out from the current crop of minivans.
Even though most of the body is still covered with the black and white pattern and the side doors still have cladding, these spy shots show off plenty of details about the new Sedona. Starting up front, Kia gave its minivan a more upright shape that we've seen a lot of on current Kia designs, while the reduced camo also makes the van's new side window shape more obvious. This pinched daylight opening (DLO) along the side is the same as what we saw on the KV7, and the window line dips back down again for the liftgate glass. While we're focused on the rear of the Sedona, that liftgate spoiler looks a lot like what we're used to seeing on the back of a Porsche Cayenne.
Kia has still yet to announce when its new minivan will be unveiled, but as things seem to be pretty far along in development, we'd expect to see something on the 2015 Sedona fairly soon.