2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.4l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2019 Hyundai Santa Fe gets $550 price bump, more tech

Hyundai's all-new 2019 Santa Fe will start at $25,500 and include more safety and other technology when it goes on sale later this year. Hyundai also confirms that the three-row version of the crossover will be renamed the Santa Fe XL for 2019, while it's developing an as-yet unnamed three-row, eight-passenger SUV, filling a hole in the Korean automaker's lineup. The Santa Fe's new starting price is $550 higher than the 2018 Santa Fe Sport, which is going away as a separate nameplate. (To keep the moves straight: The former Santa Fe Sport becomes just plain Santa Fe. The former Santa Fe becomes Santa Fe XL.) The 2019 Santa Fe's price doesn't include the $980 destination fee, which nudges the starting price up to $26,480 for the front-wheel-drive SE model. It's offered in seven trim models, topping out at the all-wheel-drive Ultimate 2.0T, which starts at $39,780. The 2019 Santa Fe borrows some of the Hyundai SmartSense safety technology from the Santa Fe Sport, including forward-collision avoidance, lane-keeping assistance and blind-spot collision assist. Other standard technology includes idle stop-start and Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility. Hyundai has also updated the looks on its fourth-generation crossover, with more chiseled hard lines in the body, a rising beltline, improved visibility and a reorganized interior with more storage space. Powering the ute is the base-level 2.4-liter inline-four engine, which makes 185 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque, or a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder putting out 235 hp and 260 lb-ft. An eight-speed automatic transmission routes power to the front or all four wheels. Fuel economy ratings top out at 22 miles per gallon in the city, 29 on the highway and 25 combined for the 2.4-liter engine in front-wheel drive, a slight improvement over its predecessor.

Genesis bringing an EV concept and G90 to New York Auto Show

It's official, the entire Hyundai Group has plans for the New York Auto Show. During the Hyundai Sonata press launch in South Korea, design head Luc Donckerwolke told Roadshow "You'll have an electric show car for Genesis." This year will be the charm for Genesis and EVs, after showing the GV80 SUV concept and its hydrogen fuel cell powertrain in 2017, and the electric Essentia coupe concept last year. We will also see the production version of the U.S. market Genesis G90 and its mongo grille. The premium brand's debuts will join the new Sonata sedan and Venue crossover, and an as-yet-unnamed Kia show car expected to be our version of the SP Signature concept potentially called Tusker. Hyundai-Kia isn't getting its electric razzle dazzle ready for New York alone. Auto Express reports the group is working on a new electric car platform to serve the carmaker the same way Volkswagen's MEB architecture serves the German group's brands. At the moment, the only four EVs in the South Korean automaker's range are the Hyundai Kona and Ioniq, and the Kia e-Niro and Soul. They are all built on ICE platforms, the Kona and e-Niro still proving popular enough for this year's planned UK-market production to sell out already. According to a "company insider," the dedicated EV platform is around two years away and will focus on B- and C-segment cars. That's the same year that Genesis is expected to have its EV ready, but unless the luxury arm has plans to dip its grille into C-segment waters, Genesis likely has other EV platform plans. By 2025, Hyundai and Kia have said they'll have 14 EVs in the combined lineup as part of 38 electrified offerings. Whatever's on the way could prove far more radical than today's offerings. Donckerwolke told Auto Express that in order to attract the future EV buyers that aren't necessarily car people, "[You] have to ask whether you want science fiction or whether you want to conform. We can create something that doesn't appeal to someone in the traditional sense." If the head designer gets his way, 3D-printing will help whip up those attractions. Last year's Essentia concept showed off 3D-printed carbon fiber ornament, but the potential goes much further.

Hyundai looking to add plant in Mexico

Mexico is rapidly becoming the go-to place for North American auto production, and companies including Toyota, General Motors, and Audi are all building new plants, expanding or shifting some production there. Now, Hyundai is investigating joining them in the future. "I'm sure that over the years we'll see production of Hyundai products in Mexico," Pedro Albarran, managing director for the automaker in Mexico, said to Bloomberg. Albarran indicates that a likely location for such a factory might be the state of Nuevo Leon, where Kia also has a forthcoming $1 billion plant. The site would be an ideal location near suppliers. It's probably going to be a while before any of Hyundai's models start coming out of Mexico. According to Bloomberg, the automaker wants to wait to make a final decision until sales there reach around 50,000 annual units, and that benchmark isn't expected until 2018. While Kia's plant is slated to have a capacity around 300,000 vehicles a year when it opens in 2016, Albarran thinks Hyundai might start smaller at just over 100,000 annual examples. Some of those would likely include subcompact models for the Mexican market. The Korean automaker was rumored to be looking into a factory south of the border as far back as 2013.