The new direction may be paying dividends already

Meanwhile, the company continues to develop a hydrogenelectric car, the Tucson FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicle) to rival DC's. "We cannot simply sit idle while watching the others go forward," said the head of the fuelcell vehicle development team, Dr JoonChul Park. The FCEV touring range was now up to 300km and it accelerated from standstill to 100kmh in 19 seconds, with a top speed of 150kmh, Park said. The first of the FCEV vehicles could go on sale by 2010, Park said, but there was plenty of work to be done outside the company before it was a viable alternative. The ability to fill a car's tank with hydrogen gas would require massive investment by energy companies, he said. The cars would have to pass crash tests, too, as engineers say the cars would behave differently to conventional designs. At a glance Hyundai Tucson On sale: August. Pigeonhole: Small 4WD. Price: $28,000plus. Engines: 104kW 2.0litre fourcylinder; 129kW 2.7litre V6; 82kW 2.0litre turbodiesel (not likely for Australia). Suspension: Independent front and rear. Weight: 16481678kg. 4WD system: Parttime with lockable 4WD button. Hyundai's push upmarket Content up to now to build cheap and cheerful cars, the message from the joint HyundaiKia Namyang R&D centre is that the company is pushing its products upmarket. Hyundai also wants to send its sister company, Kia, in which it holds a Rosetta Stone controlling interest, into the youth market, and push Hyundai up the conservative scale including possibly creating a luxury division like Toyota did with Lexus. "We are having the same kind of plan with our product," said supervisory designer YoungIl Kim, adding that there were already some projects in the pipeline. Branded as Hyundais? "This is still a question within our organisation, whether (it's a) Kia, Hyundai or putting it together with one luxury name. It's a discussion," Kim said. Kia will be positioned for younger motorists, he said. "We are trying to give a more experimental design for the Kia so that the young generation who are more dynamic people can buy that Kia product. "But for the Hyundai products, we are producing a more refined, defined image, modern though. We are trying at Hyundai to have more emotional lines." It's out with the glitzy finishes and in with the sleek aluminium look and envirofriendly textiles. "We are taking out the woodgrains, plastics; we're trying to give some more natural material on the inside. We are putting some more clean surfaces and more defined surfaces on the outside," said Kim. The new direction may be paying dividends already. Just days after the factory visit, Hyundai ranked equal second with Honda for newcar reliability, beaten by Toyota's Lexus division but eclipsing big names such as Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi, according to the latest survey by US market research firm J.D. Power & Associates. The company's export division head, HeungSoo Lheem, said being a relative newcomer was no problem: "Our identity is not yet fully formed. Sure, we don't have the legacy of bigger and older makers, but that frees us from the baggage of the past and gives us certain advantages to define who and what we want to be."

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