Hyundai is in the works of producing a new hybrid only model to give a direct competition against the Toyota Prius and also Honda Insight. This new car will be given its own specific name and it will not carry any previous model nameplate such as Tucson, Santa Fe or Sonata. At the same time, Hyundai also been studying the plug in hybrid technology but with this killer Prius car, the car will be about the size of Toyota Prius. As you can see from the concept which is the Blue Will concept, the dimension is quite similar to a Prius. It was expected that, the Blue Will as shown on the pictures, will be available in production form in 2013, the all new hybrid model only can see the light of production in the next two years.
Hyundai will partner with LG Chem to supply the batteries and currently there are a lot of Hyundai engineers working quietly behind the scenes. This hybrid only model and also the Blue Will are now being developed at Hyundai’s Namyang design center in South Korea. As you can see the design cues are inline with the current model which used the “fluidic sculpture” but this concept of Blue Will is a “fluidic sculpture” design on steroids. So you can expect the production form of both Blue Will and the all new hybrid models will have a tone down design which is suitable for design to manufacture.
Hyundai is expecting to sell the car for under $20,000.00 in the US to undercut the red hot competition for the green affordability if it wants to pose some challenges to the more famous Toyota Prius.
In terms of technology, the all new hybrid will follow the direction of the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid which is due to release in late 2010 and it will use the Hyundai’s proprietary full hybrid system with lithium polymer battaries supplied by LG Chem as I have mentioned earlier. The challenge was to reduce the weight and improve the aerodynamics and Hyundai is emphasizing efficiency in highway driving instead of city driving.
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