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Hyundai, Kia want to improve fuel economy by 25 percent

Hyundai and sister company Kia are giving themselves a little bit of time to make up a lot of ground in the fight for better fuel economy. We wonder if a recent multi-million fine might have something to do with this public target. The connected South Korean companies are vowing to increase their fleetwide fuel economy by 25 percent by 2020, Reuters reports. This will be done by further advancing their powertrains, looking at other ways to reduce weight, upgrading diesel engines and improving transmissions. That will all take money, but Kia and Hyundai will have $300 million less to invest thanks to a recent fine of more than $300 million from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for incorrect fuel economy numbers on around 1.2 million vehicles from the 2011-2013 model years. The civil penalties – $100 million of the total – are the largest in EPA history. In late 2012, Hyundai and Kia admitted to overstating the fuel economy of a number of models and said they'd change the official MPG figures and compensate owners. Hyundai spokesman Chris Hosford confirmed to AutoblogGreen that the company set the dramatic fuel-economy improvement targets. In the US, where Hyundai and Kia are operated as separate entities, Hyundai "remains committed to meeting the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) requirements that have been set out by the US government," Hosford said The EPA recently released a report on fuel-economy and put Hyundai fourth in overall fleetwide fuel economy in the US among vehicle makers for the 2014 model year. The top three were Mazda, Honda and Subaru.

Porsche tops J.D. Power quality index as Korean brands soar

While complaints about infotainment systems remain a thorn in the side of automakers for J.D. Power's annual Initial Quality Study, there's a lot to celebrate this year. The average number of problems reported per 100 vehicles fell to 112 in 2015 – a three-percent improvement compared to 116 in 2014. The results of this year's survey are based on the responses of over 84,000 people about problems within the first 90 days of buying or leasing a 2015 model-year vehicle. For the third consecutive year, Porsche tops the rankings with an average of 80 problems per 100 vehicles. Although, that's slightly more than the 74 the German sportscar maker scored in 2014. "While the Japanese automakers continue to make improvements, we're seeing other brands, most notably Korean makes, really accelerating the rate of improvement," Renee Stephens, vice president of US automotive quality at J.D. Power, said in the study's release. In fact, Kia ranks as one of the biggest movers in this year's list. The Korean brand jumped to second place from seventh last year. The company had an average of 86 problems per 100 vehicles, a 20-point improvement. Third place went to Jaguar with an average of 93 problems reported, versus last year's second-place finish with 87 of them. Fourth place was Hyundai, and fifth-place Infiniti also earned a gold star for improvement with 97 issues per 100 vehicles – 31-points better than last year. Fiat still anchored the bottom of the list. However, its 161 problems this year is a lot better than the 206 in 2014. Ranked by nationality, Korean brands (Hyundai and Kia) are now leading the industry in initial quality with an average of 90 problems reported per 100 vehicles. According to J.D. Power, this is the first time Europe's figure beat Japan with 113 and 114 issues, respectively. The American brands also averaged 114. Whereas General Motors dominated last year, the segment awards are spread out in 2015. GM, Hyundai, Nissan, and Volkswagen Group are all tied with four models each earning prizes. For more information, you can also see all of the graphs, here. J.D.

Hyundai exec admits company studying pickup, no foolin'

Automotive News reports Hyundai may be considering jumping into the US pickup market. Lee In-cheol, ice president of international sales, says the company's product planners and engineers are currently trying to determine what size pickup would be best for our market. Currently, the automaker has no plans to build a truck, but Lee says that hasn't stopped US dealers from asking the company to produce one. The US and South Korea signed a free trade agreement that took effect in 2012 that removes the so-called Chicken Tax from South Korean imports in seven years.
That means that Hyundai or Kia could import a foreign-built truck without incurring the 25 percent tax on the vehicle's value after 2021. Even so, Hyundai isn't committed into jumping into the US full-size pickup market. Instead, the company may build a smaller truck designed to compete in emerging markets.
We've been hearing word about Hyundai's pickup musings for years now, including a rumored partnership with Chrysler to produce Ram-based trucks, but so far, nothing has come of it.