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Weekly Recap: Hyundai scores NFL sponsorship after GM exits

Hyundai replaced General Motors as the official automotive sponsor of the NFL with a four-season deal that was announced this week. Hyundai gets exclusive sponsorship rights for mainstream and luxury cars, though not for pickups – as it doesn't have one in its current portfolio. "There may be another automotive truck sponsor, but not one that competes with our vehicle lineup," a Hyundai spokesman said in an email. That leaves the door open for another truckmaker to enter the fray. GM used the NFL to promote its GMC division, which makes pickups and sport-utility vehicles. The Detroit automaker decided to quit the sponsorship, which it had held since 2001, a GM spokesman said. Financials were not released, but ESPN said the sponsorship will cost Hyundai $50 million a year, double what GM paid. It gives Hyundai access to NFL trademarks for use in its marketing and advertising, and Hyundai will provide promotional vehicles to the league for the Super Bowl and other events. Hyundai celebrated the agreement by lighting up its Fountain Valley, CA, headquarters this week with a football field and the NFL logo. Hyundai's sister company, Kia, is the official automotive sponsor of the NBA. "We are huge football fans at Hyundai and feel there is no better venue to reach consumers, increase consideration, and tell the Hyundai brand story," Hyundai Motor America CEO Dave Zuchowski said in a statement. Hyundai will officially kick off its sponsorship when the NFL season begins on Sept. 10 with a primetime game featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. OTHER NEWS & NOTES Toyota Mirai rated at 67 mpge, 312-mile range The Environmental Protection Agency gave the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell electric car a 67-miles-per-gallon-equivalent rating. The figure is for city, highway, and combined driving. The EPA also said the Mirai will have a 312-mile range. The sedan will arrive in dealerships in California this fall and will cost $57,500, though incentives can drop the price significantly. The Mirai will also be offered as a $499-per-month lease. Both come with three years or $15,000 worth of free fuel. Toyota plans to expand sales to the Northeast United States later. Toyota's top female exec resigns in wake of arrest Meanwhile, in other Toyota news, the automaker's communications chief and top female executive, Julie Hamp, resigned.

Hyundai shows a mysterious coupe design in promo video

You never know where you'll find some interesting automotive news. In this particular case, we found some curious Hyundai info buried in an otherwise painfully boring Hyundai promo video. At about the 1:12 mark in the video, we see footage of a person working on a clay model of a car. It's low, sleek, and looks like it would only have two doors. It appears to have a liftback as well, and fairly aggressive vents in the back. Nothing else in the video indicates what the car is, though. However, we've got some educated guesses. One possibility is that this is a model for the successor to the recently departed Hyundai Genesis Coupe. The short deck and steeply raked rear window and pillars fall right in line with the styling of Hyundai's old sports car, not to mention the bulging rear fenders. Genesis has also made it clear that they intend to have a coupe to replace the old Genesis on sale by 2020. The luxury brand also has a small rear-drive platform in development in the form of the G70 on which it could base the coupe, along with some reasonably potent engines. Last we heard, the twin-turbo 3.3-liter V6 was under consideration. However, an argument against this being a Genesis coupe is that it would be odd to show a Genesis model in a Hyundai video. The companies are clearly trying to put space between each other, so including a Genesis vehicle in this video seems out of step with the two brands' goals. This brings us to the second possibility for this mystery coupe; that it must be a Hyundai of some sort. Hyundai has had very few coupe or coupe-like vehicles in its past. The Tiburon is long dead, thanks to the aforementioned Genesis Coupe, which will have a Genesis-branded successor. The Veloster is coupe-like and due for replacement, but recent spy photos show that it will look more like the current model and not the clay vehicle in the video. That leaves us with just one other coupe it could be: the Elantra coupe. It was killed off for the 2015 model year, but Hyundai might take another stab at it. If the company offered it exclusively with the turbocharged 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, it could attract a small enthusiast base, with the added advantage that, aside from the Civic Si, it would be the only sporty front-drive coupe on the market. Of course, it could also be something entirely new that isn't connected to any previous Hyundai or Genesis product.

Hyundai, Los Angeles Times and Consumer Reports in fuel economy skirmish?

On Wednesday, Consumer Reports issued a story taking umbrage with the auto industry's move toward smaller, turbocharged engines, noting its own testing revealed that many such powerplants fail to deliver their promised fuel economy numbers. The story covered a variety of domestic and foreign automakers, with Ford and Chevrolet featuring prominently in the discussion. Hyundai was also mentioned for its Sonata Turbo, but the Korean automaker's family sedan came within one observed mile per gallon of its EPA ratings in CR's test, and its normally aspirated 2.4-liter counterpart actually beat its combined EPA ratings, 27 mpg to 26.
Good news for Hyundai, right? The automaker was so pleased with its report card that it sent out a small statement to a handful of news outlets including Autoblog, reading in part:
"We at Hyundai believe that Consumer Reports real-world average fuel economy testing results and EPA combined fuel economy results should correlate, and in fact do correlate nicely for some brands. Among all brands, Hyundai does particularly well in this correlation, with no high-volume brand having a better correlation between EPA combined and Consumer Reports real-world fuel economy."