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Hyundai Kia Motor announced on the 28th its plans to develop a hybrid vehicle powered by a gasoline engine and an electric motor by 2010. The new model, sequent to the Sonata (Development Project Code YF), will be introduced in the North American market, where it will compete against Toyota¡¯s hybrid Prius.
The Sonata Hybrid will use gasoline, unlike the Avante, an LPG hybrid, and will feature energy savings of 60 to 70 percent compared to current models, reaching 20 km per liter, according to the brief.
Yang Woong-chul, vice president of Hyundai Kia Motor, announced the plans at a press conference held at the company¡¯s Namyang Research Center. Yang added that Toyota¡¯s technology has a complicated and expensive structure, whereas Hyundai¡¯s technology, newly developed for the Sonata, has a simple structure that is highly competitive with Toyota¡¯s in terms of efficiency and cost. Hyundai Motor plans to eventually expand its hybrid lineup from the Sonata to mid- and full-size models.
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