Hyundai Australia executives have visited South Korea to evaluate a new hybrid LPG version of the Elantra that could use as little as $10 a week in fuel.
Hyundai is “seriously considering” selling a hybrid LPG vehicle in Australia.
The car, which is due on sale in Korea in the middle of 2009, would have easily the lowest operating costs of any car in Australia, costing roughly $10 a week.
Its fuel consumption is expected to be slightly higher than Toyota’s hybrid petrol-electric Prius, but with LPG selling for up to 90c a litre less than petrol, the small Hyundai’s annual fuel costs would be less than half those of a Prius and five times lower than Australia’s top-selling car, the Holden Commodore.
Hyundai’s director of sales and marketing, Kevin McCann, says the hybrid, which is based on the same platform as the Hyundai Elantra small car, is under the microscope for local introduction.
“The situation is that while we would not like to be announcing that we are definitely bringing it here, it is under serious consideration,” he says.
“There are a number of things to be clarified. We need to weigh up things like the cost and how it would be accepted by consumers, but it looks like a very viable alternative.”
Hyundai Australia executives visited Korea two weeks ago to see the vehicle and to be briefed on technical specifications.
McCann refused to reveal the details of that trip, but says a hybrid LPG makes sense to both Australia and Korea.
“One of the interesting things we have in Australia and Korea is an established LPG infrastructure which gives it a significant advantage over the other alternative fuels,” he says.
Australia is self-sufficient in LPG and there are more than 3200 LPG filling stations around the country.
The launch date of the new car in Korea has been brought forward by several months to the middle of 2009 after Hyundai successfully lobbied the Korean Government to provide a rebate system for private buyers, similar to the one that operates in Australia.
The launch date of the new car in Korea has been brought forward by several months to the middle of 2009 after Hyundai successfully lobbied the Korean Government to provide a rebate system for private buyers, similar to the one that operates in Australia.
If the LPG hybrid car makes it to Australia, customers will be eligible to a $1000 rebate from the Federal Government.
Hyundai has already put roughly 100 hybrid LPG prototypes through performance tests and is in the process of final validation of the system.
The Elantra hybrid is believed to use a 1.6-litre LPG-powered engine, backed up by a 15kW electric motor, driven through a continuously variable transmission. The LPG hybrid car has a lithium-ion battery supplied by LG Chemical Ltd.
Hyundai refuses to reveal the exact fuel consumption of the LPG hybrid but senior Hyundai research engineer Dr Sungho Lee says the company’s hybrids are typically achieving roughly 5 litres per 100km. That compares with 4.4L/100km for the Prius but, obviously, the price of LPG is significantly cheaper than petrol or diesel.
The hybrid system overcomes one of the main barriers to customer acceptance of LPG because it delivers good fuel economy as well as a cheaper bowser price.
Ford’s Falcon LPG system, for example, is far less efficient than its petrol counterpart, using 15L/100km compared with just 10.5L/100km. The extra fuel costs negate some of the benefits of the cheaper fuel.
But based on current estimated bowser prices of $1.60 a litre for petrol and 70 cents a litre for LPG, the LPG hybrid Elantra would cost $525 a year in fuel, compared with $1056 for a Prius and $2616 for a Holden Commodore (based on 15,000km a year).
Dr Lee says research in the United States indicates that by 2020, the number of hybrid and fuel cell vehicles on the market will exceed the number of internal combustion engines.
He believes the number of hybrids will quadruple by 2012.
Hybrids still make up a small part - just 0.4 per cent - of the 1 million-vehicle-plus new-car market. In 2007 just 4228 hybrids were sold in Australia, a 42 per cent increase over 2006.
The Elantra hybrid is fitted with the first of three new hybrid systems the Korean manufacturer is developing. The second hybrid system, with a larger electric motor, is expected to be launched in the mid-sized Sonata in 2010, while the third hybrid system is a plug-in hybrid (which can be recharged from a regular power point) that can operate on the electric motor alone over certain distances.
Hyundai will begin limited production of fuel-cell vehicles in 2012, with mass production expected after 2015.
