Hyundai: Our cars will average 50 MPG by 2025
Korean auto giant Hyundai said on Wednesday that its entire United States lineup would average at least 50 miles per gallon by 2025, a more than 50 percent improvement from its current fleet.
"We don't know precisely how to get there right now," Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik reportedly said at the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars. "We do have a road map."
That 2025 corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, target envisions a 2025 lineup in which:
- 5 percent of vehicles would run on fuel cells or batteries;
- 15 to 20 percent of vehicles would be hybrids or hybrid plug-ins, and
- 75 to 80 percent of vehicles use more efficient but traditional gas engines.
The trick to achieving that goal is using technologies available today, with a few modifications, the company said. That includes making only four-cylinder engines available where there was a V6 for weight and fuel efficiency and offering hybrid versions of some of its most popular models, such as the Sonata sedan.
The target is bold, but it's in line with Hyundai's current position as the leading automaker in America for fuel efficiency.
Hyundai's fleet averaged 30.9 miles per gallon in 2008, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Following that was:
- Honda, with 30.1 mpg;
- Toyota, with 29 mpg; and
- Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, with about 24 mpg.
Under new rules passed last year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the United States will require automakers to average at least 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.
The move is also in line with Hyundai's "Blue Drive" environmental strategy, which involves the use of more efficient powertrain technologies and better materials. Hyundai says its Blue Drive push will allow it to achieve a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon by 2015, five years ahead of government guidelines.
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com