Hard as it might be to believe, Hyundai produced its first totally home-grown engine less than two decades ago. Now, Hyundai is growing up "green," showing off a technology road map stretching to 2025 when the South Korean auto maker plans to sell a fleet of vehicles averaging 50 miles per gallon, or 4.7 litres/100 km.
John Vernile, Hyundai Auto Canada's vice-president of marketing, who is introducing us to the 2011 Hyundai Sonata turbo and hybrid, says the 50 mpg goal is just like other recent company goals - from a commitment to competing with Toyota for world-class quality to becoming one of the world's five largest auto makers. "Getting to 50 mpg and beyond is a commitment, not a huge leap," he says. "We are aligning our R&D [research and development]initiatives to get there."
Vernile points to a giant chart projected onto a screen. It's the transparency of the chart's information that is so startling. Hyundai plans to reach 50 mpg by improving powertrains - from gasoline direct injection to turbocharging, electric hybrids and plug-in hybrids - while also developing vehicles with lightweight materials and other innovations. But the exotic "electrification" of the automobile plays a very small role in the overall technology road map.
Instead, Hyundai will get to 50 mpg with about 80 per cent of its fleet still using traditional gasoline engines. Gas engines will be enhanced by 10-speed transmissions, cylinder deactivation and all sorts of heat management and friction-reducing tweaks. While a showcase for Hyundai's technological capabilities, hybrids, EVs and other alternative-fuel vehicles are bit players in the longer-term company goals to 2035.
The redesigned 2011 Sonata mid-sized sedan ($22,649 base) is at the heart of the current fuel economy push. Hyundai launched it with only four-cylinder engines that achieve 5.7 litres/100 km on the highway - about the same as a Toyota Corolla. By scrapping the V-6 Sonata, Hyundai saved about 18 kilograms by eliminating components needed to accommodate a V-6 under the hood.
Still, about 10 per cent of past Sonata buyers went for the V-6. There's the problem. The base 198-hp four-banger is a modern, direct-injection motor, but it's not nearly as powerful as the V-6 engines in the Toyota Camry (268 hp), Honda Accord (271 hp), Nissan Altima (270 hp) and Chevrolet Malibu (252 hp).
Hyundai's answer for those buyers is turbocharging or what engineers called "forced induction." Hyundai's new turbo, the 2.0T starting at $28,999, delivers more horsepower (274) and more torque (269 lb-ft) than any of those V-6 rivals - while achieving 10 per cent better fuel economy than the best V-6 of the bunch.
What is perhaps most shocking about Hyundai's new turbo Sonata (and its Hybrid) is that it's not really so shocking at all to see this car company taking the technology lead by choosing to go with an all-four-cylinder Sonata lineup.
This all started more than a decade ago when Hyundai set to building its business by copying Toyota's and Honda's emphasis on reliability and fuel economy. Hyundai still trails Toyota and Honda in the latest Consumer Reports reliability ratings, but not by much: the Hyundai brand is ranked No. 11 overall, while Honda is 4th and Toyota is 6th.
But Hyundai (and its corporate cousin Kia) has gone further by emphasizing technology and cutting-edge design - on making pretty cars. As one wag puts it, "You didn't really buy a Toyota Tercel because it was a beautiful car. The factor that the Koreans have added to that mix is styling." Not to mention Hyundai's continued pricing advantage.
"You're not getting a bargain-basement car," David Champion, director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports, recently told The New York Times. "You're getting a very well-equipped car with good reliability. Every new Kia and Hyundai that we've tried has been so much better than the previous model and really, really competitive."
Hyundai certainly has come a long way from that first Alpha four-cylinder engine two decades ago. It was Hyundai's best attempt at creating its own version of the much-admired Honda D-series engine. But today's 2011 Hyundai Sonata 2.0T suggests Honda and Toyota may have a few things to learn from their Asian rivals.
Certainly consumers are noticing. Independent researchers say the South Korean brand is growing in consumer awareness and acceptance. It also helps that Toyota, Honda and now Nissan - three major Japanese rivals - have all recently felt the sting of recalling millions of vehicles for safety defects. (Hyundai, too, recently announced a major recall of Sonata sedans because of a steering defect.)
"Hyundai is benefiting from a perfect storm," said James Bell, market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, in Automotive News. "It's a result of introducing new products like the Sonata and Tucson, while Honda's mainstream vehicles, like the CR-V and Accord, are a bit stale, and Toyota is experiencing a huge consumer perception crisis."
In fact, Automotive News reports that Kelley Blue Book found earlier this year that Hyundai surpassed both Toyota and Honda to become the No. 1 brand in customer loyalty. And Kelley said Hyundai's redesigned mid-sized Sonata sedan cracked its top 10 list of most-researched vehicles for the first time.
Vernile, the Hyundai Canada marketing boss, argues that his brand's quality, technology, design and fuel economy story is translating into something critically important to buyers: better resale values. According to the Canadian Black Book's 36-month residual value research, the new Sonata is expected to retain 44 per cent of its original value after three years, compared to 50 per cent for the segment-leading Toyota Camry, 43 per cent for the Honda Accord, 37 per cent for the Nissan Altima and Chevy Malibu and 31 per cent for the Ford Fusion.
At this rate, Hyundai brand sales in Canada are likely to surpass Honda's this year for the first time. Through the first three-quarters of the year, Hyundai brand sales had reached 95,526, with the Honda brand at 92,072.
Those numbers and so many others suggest the old Alpha engine has become nothing more than an interesting historical relic of a time when Hyundai was an amusing bargain brand. No one is laughing at Hyundai any longer.
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