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Hyundai planning pure electric Genesis model

The market for luxury EVs is set to grow bigger by at least one model. The latest is set to come from Genesis, the new luxury brand launched by Hyundai. The news, according to Reuters, was revealed by the brand's chief executive Manfred Fitzgerald at the Busan Motor Show in South Korea. "We will definitely go as Genesis brand down the road of alternative propulsions and it is very, very obvious that EV is definitely on the map," said Fitzgerald "I think full electric cars will be the future in the auto industry." The executive stopped short of providing further details or a timeline for the EV's eventual launch, however it's not the first alternative powertrain the brand will offer. The G80 (pictured) is set to gain a diesel version to join the existing gasoline model, aimed principally at the vital European market that Genesis' key rivals call home. The electric Genesis would join a growing field of luxury EVs. Faraday Future is taking aim at Tesla, German automakers like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche are expected to launch upscale electric vehicles – and others are likely to follow. Fitzgerald recently signed on as Senior Vice President at the Hyundai group to oversee the Genesis brand, having previously served as branding chief at Lamborghini. He is one of a number of Westerners recruited by Hyundai's vice chairman and heir apparent Chung Eui-sun, the impetus for the upscale brand's launch, alongside the likes of designer Luc Donckerwolke and performance engineer Albert Biermann. Related Video:

Ford fights back against patent trolls

Some people are just awful. Some organizations are just as awful. And when those people join those organizations, we get stories like this one, where Ford has spent the past several years combatting so-called patent trolls. According to Automotive News, these malicious organizations have filed over a dozen lawsuits against the company since 2012. They work by purchasing patents, only to later accuse companies of misusing intellectual property, despite the fact that the so-called patent assertion companies never actually, you know, do anything with said intellectual property. AN reports that both Hyundai and Toyota have been victimized by these companies, with the former forced to pay $11.5 million to a company called Clear With Computers. Toyota, meanwhile, settled with Paice LLC, over its hybrid tech. The world's largest automaker agreed to pay $5 million, on top of $98 for every hybrid it sold (if the terms of the deal included each of the roughly 1.5 million hybrids Toyota sold since 2000, the company would have owed $147 million). Including the previous couple of examples, AN reports 107 suits were filed against automakers last year alone. But Ford is taking action to prevent further troubles... kind of. The company has signed on with a firm called RPX, in what sounds strangely like a protection racket. Automakers like Ford pay RPX around $1.5 million each year for access to its catalog of patents, which it spent nearly $1 billion building. "We take the protection and licensing of patented innovations very seriously," Ford told AN via email. "And as many smart businesses are doing, we are taking proactive steps to protect against those seeking patent infringement litigation." What are your thoughts on this? Should this patent business be better managed? Is it reasonable that companies purchase patents only to file suit against the companies that build actual products? Have your say in Comments.

Honda scores big in Automobile Advertising of the Year Awards [w/videos]

This year the Detroit Auto Show didn't just celebrate the automobile, it celebrated how we find out about the automobile, too. Partnering The One Club, this year introduced the 2014 One Show Automobile Advertising of the Year Award to Cobo Hall, celebrating winners in five different categories of advertising: broadcast television, online, interactive, experiential, and print/outdoor. Winners in those categories were judged by 50 creative directors and journalists, while a Public Choice category was chosen from among nearly 20,000 online votes.
Honda walked off with three of the six awards, its Hands spot taking Broadcast honors, its Sound of Honda getting the Online category and Illusions winning Public Choice. Hyundai made the grade in Interactive with Driveway Decision Maker, Fiat captured Print/Outdoor with its "Letters" ad, and Toyota's Tundra Endeavor Campaign spot and BMW's A Window into the Near Future were co-winners for Experiential.
You can watch all of the press release and winning videos below or check out all of the finalists, announced last month, for a refresher.