2012 Kia Optima Ex Premium Pkg. Loaded Excellent 13k Miles on 2040-cars

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Hyundai spooks investors by paying $10B for new Gangnam HQ location

Doing things Gangnam style apparently costs a serious chunk of change, because Hyundai is reportedly paying roughly $10 billion for 19.6 acres (79,342 square meters) of land in the trendy district of Seoul, South Korea, to serve as the location for its new headquarters. That eye-popping number represents the highest amount ever paid for a plot of land in South Korea, according to Reuters. The hefty price tag reportedly scared investors enough for stock prices to sink dramatically.
Shareholders were apparently upset because the massive outlay could instead have been put back into the company for research and development or other improvements. Instead, the company reportedly bid triple the land's appraised value, says Reuters. The announcement caused Hyundai's stock price to plummet a massive 9 percent, and there were losses from Kia and the company's parts arm, as well. All told, the three of them lost nearly $8 billion in value from the falling share prices - almost enough to pay for the controversial land.
Hyundai currently has its headquarters on the outskirts of Seoul, but seems keen to move to the high-end Gangnam district to show off its rising status. It plans to build a new office complex, hotel, convention center and theme park on the site. According to an analyst speaking to Reuters, that could all cost an additional $6 billion to complete.

Hyundai shutters engine development in shift to electric and hydrogen vehicles

Hyundai is quickly pivoting into an era of electric vehicles. Shortly after announcing it would halve the number of internal combustion models, it launched its first EV on its dedicated Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), the supremely enjoyable Ioniq 5. Now, as The Korea Economic Daily reports, Hyundai Motor Group, which includes sister brand Kia and luxury brand Genesis, has closed its engine development division at its research and development center in South Korea to put those resources into electric powertrain development. According to the report, researchers from engine design are moving to its electrification design center, but a few remain behind to continue to refine existing internal combustion engines. The powertrain system development center will become an electrification test center, and the performance division will focus on electric performance. The group has also established a battery development center, and the R&D Center will also focus on raw materials for batteries and semiconductors. In an email, R&D boss Park Chung-Kook told employees, “Now, it is inevitable to convert into electrification. Our own engine development is a great achievement, but we must change the system to create future innovation based on the great asset from the past.” Hyundai Motor Group is targeting one million EVs a year by 2025, and full electrification by the year 2040. In addition to the newly launched Ioniq 5, Hyundai is planning to launch the Ioniq 6 EV, based on the stunning Prophecy concept, in 2022, and weÂ’ve already seen spy shots of that prototype in testing. That will be followed by the full-size Ioniq 7 SUV in 2024, which was recently previewed by the Seven Concept at the 2021 L.A. Auto Show. Kia is set to launch the EV6 in 2022, and Genesis recently revealed the GV60 electric crossover, both of which will use HyundaiÂ’s E-GMP architecture. Genesis also recently revealed an electric version of the GV70 crossover in China. Of course, Hyundai is also invested in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, both commercial vehicles like its Xcient trucks, and passenger cars like the Nexo and the recently revealed Vision FK concept. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Hyundai and Kia to update EV brake lights; our tests show how they currently may not come on

Update: This article has been updated to reflect Kia's own service campaign announcement.  Hyundai will be launching a "field service campaign to update the EV brake light logic" on its Ioniq 5 as well as the Genesis GV60, Electrified GV70 and Electrified GV80. According to Hyundai's director of communications, Michael Stewart, the change will be make to new production vehicles and as part of free-of-charge service campaign that will launch in July for approximately 56,000 vehicles already on the road.  "Regardless of the accelerator pedal input, the brake lights will now turn on when the deceleration rate exceeds approximately 0.13 G," Stewart wrote in an e-mail to Autoblog. Since this article was originally published, Kia has announced it will be performing the same update to its EV6 and Niro EV. Kia is also part of the Hyundai Group. This change would seem to be in keeping with the behavior we have experienced in the Hyundai Ioniq 6, the firm's most recently introduced EV. We go into that behavior lower in this article.  This announcement comes in the wake of owner complaints as well as a test by Consumer Reports that found that most Hyundai, Genesis and Kia electric vehicles can come to a stop without their brake lights illuminating. This occurred when using those vehicles' most aggressive "i-Pedal" function that allows for so-called "one-pedal driving" where the driver can mostly rely upon the car's regenerative braking system (which is used to replenish the battery pack) to stop the car.  We tested this for ourselves this week as we are currently testing a Genesis Electrified GV70, and I personally own a 2023 Kia Niro EV Wave. I almost exclusively drive in i-Pedal mode. News Editor Joel Stocksdale tested the Hyundai Ioniq 6 in Michigan, and again, we will address his findings after the Genesis and Kia as they are completely different. I attached an action camera to the rear of each car and conducted the same test in both: Accelerate to 40 mph and come to a stop without touching the brake and, crucially, without lifting my foot fully off the throttle. The result as you can see below with the Niro is that the brake lights do not come on until around 3 mph when I fully lifted off the throttle and bring the car to a full stop. I could not bring the car to a full stop without fully lifting off the throttle.