Hyundai’s Electric Offerings: Sonata Hybrid by 2009, Plug-in by 2013

In the past few weeks, Hyundai executives have made so many announcements about potential electric and hybrid cars that we’re wondering whether Hyundai engineers are going to debut a battery-powered toaster in early September. Within the next five years the Korean carmaker aims to produce a hybrid subcompact, a hybrid midsize, and a plug-in Chevy Volt competitor. There’s even some speculation that two of these cars will be stamped “Made in the USA.”

On Monday, the Korea Times reported that Hyundai announced a partnership with Korean companies LG Chem, SK Energy and SB LiMotive in order to create the batteries that would underpin a Hyundai plug-in hybrid. Already, LG is expected to supply the batteries for the Chevy Volt. On Tuesday, According to Trading Markets, Hyundai’s chief technology officer Lee Hyun-soon said the Japanese were ahead of Korean battery technology, but that the Korean group could “catch up by 2013.” According to The Chosun-Ilbo, the catch-up game is largely financed by the automakers themselves (who are kicking in nearly a billion dollars) and a $40 million grant from the Korean government.

Earlier final week, the AP reported that Hyundai’s Vice Product of Product Development John Krafcik announced the new Sonata hybrid will sport lithium-ion batteries and will manufacture its debut at the L.A. universal Auto Show in November, and will be the first partially-electric Sonata since Switched-On Bach. The Sonata hybrid is additionally not to be confused with another Hyundai hybrid in the works — an LPG-electric hybrid based on the Avante (known in the US as the Elantra) that promises 37.9 miles per gallon. According to Motor

Trend, there’s nearly no chance a hybrid Elantra will be sold in the US, though it’s propane powertrain could compose a billionaire out of Hank Hill.

Early signs point to US-manufacture for at least the Sonata Hybrid, according to the Birmingham News. While Hyundai spokesman Jim Trainor was mum about whether the company planned to build the Sonata Hybrid stateside in the same Alabama factory as the current Sonata (pictured above), he did offer compliment for the South Korean cars built in the Deep South. “The workforce down there and the products
they’re building are awesome,” Trainor told the News. “The quality coming out of
the plant is awesome. Certainly careful consideration will
be given to those sorts of things when we’re looking at
where a vehicle like that will be built.” Currently, all US-bound Hyundai sedans are made in the US. whether the Sonata hybrid were to be built south of the Mason-Dixon line, it’d join the upcoming Alabama-built Mercedes M-class hybrid and the 2010 Mississippi-made Prius.

Already, Hyundai’s American offerings are a tremendous rags-to-riches story,
better than any early-evening nominating conference speaker could offer. From the
dowdy Excel to the overly made up sedans of the early 2000s, Hyundai
has matured into the final “cocktail party car”: Comfortable yet
unobtrusive, well-built but not overwrought, the Genesis and Sonata
show that the carmaker has truly arrived. Debuting what’s expected to be the world’s first lithium-ion hybrid will be a major coup for Hyundai, and all hybrid offerings would likely be a boon for Korean battery manufacturer LG.

Photo courtesy Hyundai USA

Original post by Keith Barry