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Hyundai exec admits company studying pickup, no foolin'

Automotive News reports Hyundai may be considering jumping into the US pickup market. Lee In-cheol, ice president of international sales, says the company's product planners and engineers are currently trying to determine what size pickup would be best for our market. Currently, the automaker has no plans to build a truck, but Lee says that hasn't stopped US dealers from asking the company to produce one. The US and South Korea signed a free trade agreement that took effect in 2012 that removes the so-called Chicken Tax from South Korean imports in seven years.
That means that Hyundai or Kia could import a foreign-built truck without incurring the 25 percent tax on the vehicle's value after 2021. Even so, Hyundai isn't committed into jumping into the US full-size pickup market. Instead, the company may build a smaller truck designed to compete in emerging markets.
We've been hearing word about Hyundai's pickup musings for years now, including a rumored partnership with Chrysler to produce Ram-based trucks, but so far, nothing has come of it.

Google shows off its Android Auto system

Cars fitted with the Apple CarPlay system should be in dealerships next year, available as a delayed option on the 2015 Hyundai Sonata and eventually expected to be available on Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari vehicles. Google isn't that far behind with its Android Auto, and after Hyundai showed it off at the LA Auto Show, Google Developers used their Dev.Bytes program give us a better look at it. Any phone with Lollipop 5.0, the latest version of Android, will be able to interface with the system after being plugged into the car's USB port. The Google Now cards you're familiar with on the phone will appear on the infotainment screen, and from there you're in a mobile Android world. A report in Edmunds says that Whatsapp will be an option from the start, and nifty Google tricks like "contextual search via voice control" respond to queries based on what's being discussed. Although Bloomberg recently did a video examining the Google vs. Apple question, your choice won't be binary; in Hyundais, at least, both systems will be fitted, plugging a phone in will decide which one comes up on screen. We don't know when we'll see it dealerships, but the video will give you a glimpse into your Android future.

Hyundai to launch European performance sub-brand

Hyundai has quickly emerged from the sidelines as one of the biggest players in the industry, outselling rivals left, right and center. Still, a dedicated performance division is still something that separates it from the big boys. Now, according to the latest reports, that's just what it's getting.
After setting up its own Nürburgring test center and gearing up to launch its assault on the World Rally Championship, the next step in the ramping up of Hyundai's performance credentials - in Europe, especially - will reportedly be to set up its own performance division along the lines of what Nissan has done with Nismo.
The first product in Hyundai's new European performance portfolio is expected to be a version of the next i20 hatchback that's set to launch in 2015. That in turn will be used as the basis for the company's next WRC challenger, to replace the upcoming model, pictured above undergoing testing. After that it's anyone's guess, but performance versions of the Veloster, Genesis Coupe and Elantra could be in the cards.