Hyundai Global PR Director reveals the company’s straight forward approach to offering some of the most fuel efficient vehicles in their respective classes.
Frank Ahrens -
Hyundai Global PR - Aug 17, 2012
2013 Hyundai Elantra (Limited Shown) – An affordable $16,695 to start and a healthy 29/40 mpgUS city/highway rating for the rest of the time you own and drive it.
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Hyundai Fuel-Efficiency Leadership: How We Do It”
Hyundai has made the biggest jump of any automaker in fleet fuel efficiency, says a recent auto industry survey in the U.S.
According to the TrueCar, Hyundai added 2.5 miles per gallon to each vehicle in our lineup.
This is doubly impressive because Hyundai is already the highest-mileage brand in the U.S. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the average fuel efficiency of all Hyundai cars is 27.8 miles per gallon, a figure that beats all of our competitors.
But don’t think Hyundai’s high-mileage, low-emissions ways are limited to the U.S.
Our Blue Drive i20 sold in Europe emits the lowest amount of CO2 (84 g/km) of any internal-combustion car on the road.
Both the gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) versions of our India sub-compact, Eon, are mileage leaders on the Subcontinent.
Hyundai has the goal of being the global leader in fuel efficiency. And we’re attacking the problem in two main ways.
- Weight reduction: Hyundai has the goal of reducing overall vehicle weight on all of its cars by 10 percent over the next few years. Most automakers want to reduce weight, but we have more options than our competitors. First, we can reduce engine weight by replacing some metal parts with high-strength, high-temperature plastic parts. More importantly, we can reduce body weight with the rapid deployment of high-tensile, low-weight steel throughout our vehicle line. We can do that faster than other automakers because we’re the only global automaker to own our own steel plant, Hyundai Steel, where we tailor-make steel for our cars.
- Engine efficiency: At Hyundai, we’ve made a decision to downsize our engines to reduce fuel consumption and weight. For instance, we pioneered the use of four-cylinder engines in our mid-size Sonata when our competitors were still using six-cylinder engines in their mid-size cars. We haven’t forced customers to give up performance, however. Our new gasoline direct-injection engines (GDI) – where the fuel is directed directly into the cylinder – increase performance and efficiency. And then there’s turbocharging. Our Sonata Turbo has the fuel efficiency of a four-cylinder engine but, when you step on the gas, the power of a turbocharged engine. We’re constantly exploring the frontiers of turbocharging: at the Geneva motor show in March, we showed a mighty-mite 1.0-liter turbocharged engine. We haven’t said if or when we’re putting that in any of our cars, but you have to admit: it’s cool to know we have it.
If we’re going to retain the crown of mileage leader in the years to come, we know it won’t be achieved only with gasoline and diesel engines. That’s why we’re pursuing an entire range of alternative-fuel power plants – hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery electric and fuel-cell electric.
We sell the Sonata Hybrid in Korea and the U.S. We have extensively tested a battery electric car in Korea and are ready to begin producing electric vehicles when the market is ready. And we’ve got some big news coming soon on our fuel-cell vehicle. (The fuel-cell vehicle is essentially a magic car: It emits nothing but water. Much more on that later.)
Hyundai is committed to building the highest-mileage, lowest-emissions cars on the planet. And now you know how we do it.
2013 Hyundai Elantra GT as the sun fades into the horizon.
Currently rated at just 31 mpgUS combined and capable of way more when driven correctly
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