2011 Hyundai Sonata Se Sedan 4-door 2.4l-upgrades on 2040-cars

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Hyundai delivers its first Tucson Fuel Cell to a California customer

With expected pomp and circumstance, but short of a marching band, Hyundai delivered its first Tucson Fuel Cell crossover to the Bush family in Southern California on Tuesday. Dave Zuchowski, president and chief executive officer of Hyundai Motor America, was on hand to officiate along with an array of other government officials, including California Air Resources Board chairman Mary Nichols. The automaker is touting the emissions-free vehicle as the "world's only mass-produced fuel cell vehicle" as it travels down the same assembly line as the other Tucson models - its production is scalable, based on demand.
The Tucson Fuel Cell replaces the standard model's 2.4-liter, four-cylinder, gasoline combustion engine with a 100-kW fuel cell stack, which sends power to a 100-kW (134 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque) electric motor driving the front wheels. A 24-kW battery pack, shared with the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, is used for storage. The vehicle earns the customer a combined 50 MPGe, while earning the automaker up to $130,000 through California's ZEV credit system.
As the hydrogen refueling infrastructure is extremely underdeveloped, Hyundai will initially only offer the Tucson Fuel Cell on a lease program to customers in the Los Angeles/Orange County areas, where it has approved six stations with the 700-bar (WEH TK17 pistol-grip nozzle) pumps. The automaker has packaged the program with a $2,999 drive-off, with payments of $499 per month for 36 months. To nearly eliminate operating expenses, the automaker is throwing in "unlimited free hydrogen refueling" (keep in mind that the leasee is only contracted to 12,000 miles each year, so that will put a cap on how much free fuel flows from the pump) along with the company's At Your Service Valet Maintenance at no extra cost.

Hyundai hits milestone with 10 million cars sold in US

Hyundai entered the US market in 1986, and initial success with the Excel was followed by a difficult period of quality woes. The company refused to bow out of the country, and began a turnaround. Now after nearly 30 years, the automaker is a highly respected player in the market and is celebrating the milestone of selling its 10 millionth vehicle in the US. Amazingly, just five models make up nearly 85 percent of Hyundai's lifetime US sales, and unsurprisingly the Scoupe isn't one of them. The brand's bestselling model in that time is the Sonata with nearly 2.5 million examples on the road and 24.98 percent of the company's total volume. At 24.85 percent of deliveries, the Elantra barely squeezes into second place, and the Santa Fe is a somewhat distant third with about 1.25 million deliveries. Rounding out the top five are the Excel – Hyundai's first US model – at 11.47 percent and the Accent at 11.03 percent. Since opening in 2005, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama has been responsible for a healthy portion of those 10 million total sales by assembling 2.66 million vehicles, including the Sonata and Elantra. "About 56 percent of the cars Hyundai sells in the United States are made here," company President and CEO Dave Zuchowski said in the milestone's announcement. Take a look at where Hyundai is today and at some of its vintage models in the gallery above. With volume up consecutively for the last seven years, it probably won't take another three decades for the automaker to celebrate the 20 million mark. Milestone Marks Automaker's Continued Investment in U.S. Market and Economy FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 28, 2015 – Hyundai marked a monumental milestone today, selling its 10 millionth vehicle in the United States. Having started in 1986 with a single nameplate, reaching 10 million sales is a significant achievement that showcases the success of Hyundai's continually expanding lineup. "The United States has been a key region of focus for nearly three decades, and this landmark achievement comes after years of accelerated growth and the strategic rollout of our product line," said Derrick Hatami, vice president of national sales, Hyundai Motor America. "Today serves as a testament to the design, quality and value of Hyundai's product portfolio. The American car market continues to be on the rise, with more than 17 million new car sales expected in 2015.

Hyundai beefs up HB20 R-Spec in Brazil

If you've been following the news from the Sao Paulo Motor Show, you'll likely have seen not only a series of new concept cars, but also a whole mess of production vehicles you never knew existed because they were developed specifically for the Latin American market. One of them is the Hyundai HB20.
Hyundai Brasil makes the HB20 in Sao Paulo for local consumption in three forms: there's the HB20 hatchback, HB20S sedan and HB20X crossover. It's the former which it has transformed into the R-Spec concept you see here.
Decked out in matte blue, the HB20 R-Spec concept packs an aggressively upgraded aero kit, extra cooling ducts, 17-inch alloys, LED headlights and an interior with leather trim and striped seats. Even if we don't know what's under the hood, it all looks pretty convincing, and makes us wish Hyundai would offer it Stateside as part of the Accent family with which it shares its underpinnings.