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Hyundai To Fight $248 Million Judgment Over Fatal Montana Crash

A Montana jury has levied a $248 million ruling against Hyundai in the case of a crash that killed two occupants in July 2011. The automaker plans to appeal the ruling. Cousins Trevor and Tanner Olson were driving a 2005 Hyundai Tiburon when they hit another vehicle head-on. According to lawyers representing their family, the steering knuckle on the car cracked and this allegedly caused it to lose control. Hyundai claimed that fireworks had been let off inside the vehicle, which caused the driver to swerve. The company alleges that evidence that could have proved its innocence was barred from the case. The jury found in favor of the family and awarded them about $8 million in damages after a two-week trial. It claimed that Hyundai had shown "actual malice," according to Reuters. The jurors also slammed Hyundai with a further $240 million in punitive damages. Hyundai told Reuters that it plans to appeal immediately and called the verdict "outrageous." Autoblog has received a copy of the automaker's official statement, detailing its plans to appeal this case. Scroll down to read it. Statement by Hyundai Motor America While a tragic accident, Hyundai firmly believes the jury's verdict in Olson vs. Hyundai is mistaken and award of damages at three times what was sought by the plaintiffs is outrageous and should be overturned as Hyundai is not at fault. Eyewitness testimony established – and experts for both sides agree – that fireworks exploded in the unbelted teenagers' vehicle immediately before the July 2, 2011 accident, which involved the driver losing control, crossing the median and crashing head-on into an oncoming Pontiac at a closing speed of approximately 140 miles per hour – a speed confirmed by experts for both sides. Hyundai believes the jury's view of the evidence was distorted by a series of erroneous rulings by the Court, the most egregious of which prevented the jury from reviewing performance testing conducted by renowned failure analysis experts that would have disproven the plaintiffs' theory of the case – a theory derived by a local resident with no previous automotive experience. Hyundai will seek an immediate appeal. Technical Background The 140 mph closing speed head-on collision crushed the steering knuckles of both vehicles involved, a Hyundai Tiburon and a Pontiac Grand Am.

Hyundai hires actor Paul Rudd as pitchman [w/video]

The Dude abides, but his deep voice is going to be coming from your TV a little less. After seven years of his earthiness, laid back actor Jeff Bridges is no longer the voice of Hyundai in the brand's advertising. He has been replaced by comedian Paul Rudd who is already narrating the new commercial for the 2015 Hyundai Sonata.
"We were looking for a voice that could be recognizable and relatable to a new generation of car buyers," said Steve Shannon, vice president of Marketing, Hyundai Motor America, in the company's announcement of the deal. "Rudd can be serious, humorous, informative and entertaining all at the same time."
According to Hyundai spokesperson Derek Joyce speaking to Autoblog, the deal with Rudd goes for the next three years. "He's our tier one voice, and that's going to affect tone" in the company's ads," Joyce said. The first spot with Rudd is titled Co-Pilot, and it stars a backseat driver losing out to the Sonata's navigation system and safety features at every turn. Rudd isn't physically in the commercial but does the ending voiceover. The company wouldn't say when the next ad with the new pitchman might debut.

2016 Hyundai Sonata PHEV will be a 50-state car, sort of

Technically, the upcoming 2016 Hyundai Sonata Plug In Hybrid will be available in all 50 states. It will just be a lot easier to get in the ten ZEV states. That's because in the 40 states that do not follow California's Zero Emission Vehicle regulations, Hyundai dealers will not be stocking the plug-in version of the Sonata when it goes on sale in the fall of 2015. In the ten ZEV states (California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont), Hyundai will stock and sell the PHEV Sonata just like any other model, with numerous colors and trim levels available on dealer lots. In the other 40 states, "we're not going to encourage dealers to stock them," because the company expects demand to be low, said Mike O'Brien, Hyundai's vice president of corporate and product planning. O'Brien was speaking at a launch event for the two new Sonatas in California this week. Hyundai has a reason for choosing the ZEV states as a starting point, O'Brien said. "The ten states are spending more money on charging infrastructure, so you can park at work, you can park while you're in the grocery store, and you can charge your car while you're doing it." In any other state, where the plug-in infrastructure is weaker, a customer can order a PHEV Sonata just as if they were going to get a specific color Veloster that the local dealer didn't have in stock, O'Brien said. "It's really no different." "If you just look at the sales, basically all our competitors, over half of their plug-in hybrid sales are right here in the state of California," O'Brien said. "Usually, much more than half. If you cover the ZEV states, you're going to cover over 85 percent of the sales already. And we're going to make sure that our dealers can accommodate and customers that wish to buy outside those states." In other ways, the PHEV buying process will be similar. The customer can choose, at time of purchase, to rely on standard 110-volt outlets or to work with the dealer to install a Level 2, 240-volt charger at their home. Hyundai will train its dealers to offer a preferred partner's charger (Hyundai would not specify which company it will be working with). With 110, an empty-to-full charge of the 9.8-kWh lithium-ion polymer battery will take around nine hours, but with Level 2 it'll be around three hours. "The essential technical elements [of the PHEV] are the same as the hybrid," O'Brien said.