Archive for Hyundai

Sime Darby Bhd is considering expanding it’s Kulim car production facility from the current 30,000 units a year up to 120,000 units a year if it can get Hyundai to use Malaysia as it’s ASEAN hub. Hyundai is currently considering between Thailand, Vietnam or Malaysia as potential production hub for the ASEAN market.

Currently Sime Darby assembles a few Hyundai vehicles for the local market through it’s Inokom badge – the ATOZ as the Inokom Atos Prima, the Matrix as the Inokom Matrix, and most recently the Hyundai Getz as the Inokom Getz. Inokom also assembles Hyundai commercial trucks like the Hyundai Mighty, and has plans to locally assemble SUVs by Hyundai.

Related Posts:
CKD Hyundai SUVs soon!
Inokom to assemble Hyundai Mighty

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Hyundai has kitted out their new Hyundai Sonata NF for public viewing at the Australian Motor Show 2006, which gives us a preview of a possible future high performance Hyundai Sonata model. The Hyundai Sonata SXi Concept is powered by a V6 engine driving the front wheels through a 5-speed automatic transmission.

Hyundai Australia put the concept together to gauge public response to the model, of which if favourable, could mean we could see a high performance Hyundai going on sale perhaps sometime in 2007.

Rear view after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Hyundai Sonata SXi Concept

Hyundai’s first attempt at a full size seven-passenger SUV – the Hyundai Terracan based on Mitsubishi Pajero underpinings – was pretty much a failure. I haven’t seen it on the road anywhere, and there are talks that there are only 2 in Malaysia, both being owned by people related to the Hyundai distributorship here.

Hyundai is giving the segment a shot again with the newly launched Hyundai Veracruz, a mid-ish full-ish sized luxury SUV named after a coastal Mexican state. Hyundai says the Veracruz will have more cargo volume than the bigger Mercedes benz GL, provided it’s third row seats that provide it’s 7-seater capacity are stowed away.

Power will come from a 265 horsepower 3.8 liter V6 or a 3.0 liter turbodiesel, and the Hyundai Veracruz is expected to be unveiled to the public early January 2007 at the Detroit Motor Show.

Click here to read the rest of 2007 Hyundai Veracruz

Hyundai-Sime Darby Motors Sdn Bhd plans to start CKD assembly of Hyundai SUVs by mid-2007, in efforts to capture a bigger share of the non-national car market. Hyundai’s Malaysian SUV offerings currently consist of the Tucson crossover SUV and the Santa Fe SUV. The Tucson is a small SUV going on head to head with likes of the Ford Escape, and the Hyundai Santa Fe competes with the bigger boys like the Honda CR-V.

Local assembly of the Hyundai Getz 1.4 with an Inokom badge has managed to drop the price by about RM10,000 – so I guess we can expect a CKD Santa Fe soon, with the Tucson coming later, similiar to the route Naza took with local assembly of the Kia Sorento first, and possible assembly of the Sportage in the future.

In GreenFleet’s Capital Fuel Challenge, the Hyundai Getz 1.5 CRDi turbodiesel won first place for the private sector category, beating a Toyota Prius 1.6 petrol hybrid which got 2nd place as well as a Volkswagen Caddy 1.9 TDi turbodiesel which ended up third.

The test was conducted in London traffic, with speeds averaging from 5 to 10 mph, yup – this isn’t a highway test. City traffic only. The Getz managed to get 45.15 mpg, while the Prius only got 32.43 mpg. The third place Caddy managed 36.53 mpg, better than the Prius, but it lost the 2nd place to the Prius because Prius emissions were slightly lower – 201.85 CO2 g/km versus 204.31 CO2 g/km for the Caddy.

In the public sector category, there was a Prius which managed 45.71 mpg, as opposed to the 32.43 mpg for the Prius in the private sector category – this shows that Prius fuel efficiency is highly dependant on external factors – perhaps the driver in this case. Still, 45.71 mpg in the best performing Prius is only slightly better than the Getz’s 45.15 mpg.

Perhaps hybrids are overrated after all.

Hyundai has just opened it’s new 50 million Euro headquarters in Germany, part of the company’s strategy to become one of Europe’s top automotive brands. The new HQ in Offenbach, near Frankfurt, will be Hyundai’s central for European sales, marketing and aftersales divisions.

Hyundai’s headquarters was previously located in Russelheim, Germany. The center will now be expanded into a dedicated European Research and Design Centre.

Combined with Hyundai’s first European plant in the Czech Republic, Hyundai will now centralise planning, design, production and sales for the European market within Europe itself. Shown above is the Hyundai Arnejs Concept, the base for a new European Hyundai.

We all know Dodge doesn’t really have a small car in it’s stables, which explains the Dodge Hornet concept and Chrysler’s on-going search for a partner to build small cars with. But somewhere south of the USA, in Mexico there are small Dodge cars going around the streets – the Dodge Attitude.

Looks familiar to you? You bet. The car is actually a rebadged 2006 Hyundai Accent, one model newer than the Accent that is available on our local shores right now. Dodge also sells a Dodge Atos – you guessed it! – a rebadged Hyundai Atos.

DaimlerChrysler and Hyundai used to have some form of strategic alliance together back in the year 2000 which involved DaimlerChrysler holding a 10% equity in Hyundai. This stake was sold in the year 2004 at a profitable US$912 million. It bought the stake in 2000 for US$428 million. They had a few projects together, even a small car platform but I don’t know what has happened to that now, since Chrysler is looking elsewhere for a small car development program. Another product of the partnership is the World Engine (1.8L to 2.4L), developed under the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance, or GEMA – a collaboration between DaimlerChrysler, Mitsubishi Motors, and Hyundai.

I wonder if someone will try to stuff a Hemi into a Dodge-badged Hyundai Accent.

Hyundai Motor Company Australia unveiled this specially tuned up Hyundai Getz FX called the GetzTC back in 2003 at the Brisbane Motor Show.

The base car is a pre-facelift Hyundai Getz FX 3-door, and this had some Astrel bodykits slapped on, together with nice 17 inch Lenso five spoke alloy wheels wrapped with low profile 215/35/R17 Silverstone tyres.

The GetzTC was fit with a sports suspension system using Koni Sport Yellow shock absorbers and Whiteline springs. You also have huge 330mm slotted disc brakes at the front with twin piston PBR calipers to fill up the space behind the big wheels, lest the stock brakes start to look like 50 cent coins. Rear drums were replaced with 280mm slotted and drilled discs.

The stock Hyundai Alpha III 1.5 liter DOHC 16 valve engine which makes 100hp in stock form was upped to about 160hp (estimate) with a bolt-on Garrett T25 ball bearing turbo and air-to-air intercooler running at 0.55 bar of boost. The engine had no internal modifications done to it, but the stock engine management has been swapped with a Autronic SMC standalone ECU. This is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox, but for further performance enhancement the car uses a 215mm LC2 Accent 1.6 DOHC Flywheel with Exedy 215mm Sports Organic Clutch.

The Hyundai GetzTC is no longer in existance, as the performance parts were stripped out and the Getz was converted back to a standard stock 3-door Getz FX model and sold through Hyundai dealerships as a used Hyundai Getz. However, for Getz owners who want a similiar modification, an Australian company called Performance Styling Center has developed a similiar turbokit for the Getz.

Two more photos after the jump, as well as a dyno chart from PSC.

Click here to read the rest of GetzTC – Hyundai Getz Turbo by Hyundai Australia

Inokom will be launching it’s locally assembled version of the new facelift Hyundai Getz – to be called the Inokom Getz later this month, which will come in 1 variant – the Getz 1.4 liter DOHC. They had a media preview recently but I was not invited, so I don’t really have precise details on the car – the best I can do is talk about the features of the new facelifted Getz overseas and hope they’re also echoed in the local version. Anyway, details and more photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Inokom Getz 1.4 later this month

Hyundai will be showing it’s Hyundai Arnejs Concept at the Paris Motor Show end of this month. The Hyundai Arnejs, pronounced Ar-nez, will give us a preview on how Hyundai’s new European C-segment contender will look like when it is launched in Summer 2007 for the UK market.

The Hyundai Arnejs Concept is designed at Hyundai’s European Research and Design centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany and takes certain design cues from it’s previous concept car, the Hyundai Genus Concept. The production version will likely share similiar parts or even the whole platform with the recently announced Kia cee’d, which will also make it’s debut at the 2006 Paris Motor Show.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Hyundai Arnejs Concept at Paris 2006