futureproducts

P A R T 4 : K O R E A What do the terms mean?● Freshen: Minor changes to interior and exterior, such as newgrille, fascia, front and rear lights or seat surfaces.

● Re-engineering: Significant engineering changes, such asrevised powertrain, chassis, suspension, center stack or interior.Often includes some new sheet metal.

● Redesign: New platform, powertrain, interior and sheetmetal. Engine and transmission could be carried over.

● New: A nameplate added to lineup.

2ND HALF

LAUNCH TIMELINE2013

2ND HALF1ST HALF

Kia

Hyundai

Forte Koup redesignForte 5-door redesignOptima freshenSoul redesignSportage freshen

Accent freshenElantra freshenEquus freshen

Genesis re-engineering

2014 second half

Quoris debut?Sedona redesignSoul EV (or early 2015)

Sonata re-engineering

Optima re-engineering

Azera freshenSonata hybrid re-engineeringTucson re-engineering

Rio freshenSorento re-engineering

Elantra redesign?Genesis Coupere-engineering

“RK” debut?(mid-year)

2016 1st half

Equus redesign?

20152ND HALF 1ST HALF

20142ND HALF

20161ST HALF

Korean brands keep pushing their boundariesRyan Beene

rbeene@crain.com

ew products on the way fromHyundai and Kia will continue totest the boundaries of both brands.

Following the launch of its up-to-$42,000 Cadenza sedan, Kia will continue itsmarch upscale when it brings a flagship sedan,the Quoris, to the United States as early as nextyear. Kia’s rear-wheel-drive counterpart toHyundai’s Equus flagship is expected to costmore than $50,000 and have loads of high-techfeatures and luxury amenities. If consumersembrace it, the car will help diversify the brandbeyond the design-oriented, value-based at-tributes for which Kia is best known.

Hyundai’s next big test will be on twofronts: luxury cars and mainstream populari-ty. Its second-generation Genesis arrivingnext summer needs big leaps in interior re-finement, ride and handling for it to be a truecompetitor to luxury rides from Germany.The same goes for the next Equus when it ar-rives, possibly in 2016.

More important is the next-generationSonata, which will be critical to Hyundai’ssuccess next year.

The seventh generation of Hyundai’s mid-sized family sedan, expected to arrive in thethird quarter next year, will go up against acrop of sedans from Ford, Honda, Toyota,Nissan, Chevrolet and Mazda that have all

launched in the last 18 months or so. Thatmeans the competitive bar will be higherthan it was when the current Sonata went onsale in 2010, when competing models weregetting long-in-the-tooth.

Serious change also could be afoot on thedesign front. The next Sonata will incorpo-rate a new design language Hyundai hascalled “fluidic precision,” which should bemore restrained than the current theme ofswoopy, expressive lines.

And with Kia global design boss PeterSchreyer now heading design operations atboth Hyundai and Kia, the look of futureHyundai vehicles is very much a work inprogress.c

Ryan Beenerbeene@crain.com

yundai has been building out its vehicle lineupwith new nameplates and eye-catching re-designs of existing products since 2010.

Now that it fields an entry in most major ve-hicle segments, with the exception of a pickup, Hyundaiis turning its attention to keeping its lineup fresh ratherthan adding nameplates.

Its Accent subcompact and Elantra compact cars willbe freshened this year after its $60,000-plus Equus luxu-ry car gets an updated interior and other improvementsthis summer.

Next year two of Hyundai’s most important vehiclesget major updates. The second-generation Genesis goeson sale in the second quarter after it makes its debut atthe Detroit auto show in January. Hyundai’s bread-and-butter Sonata mid-sized sedan gets new sheet metal, anew interior and ride and handling improvements for its2015-model re-engineering next summer.

Down the road, Hyundai is planning to add a rear-wheel-drive sport sedan, possibly in 2016.

Here are highlights of Hyundai’s product plan for the2014-2017 model years.

Accent: Hyundai’s subcompact will get new contentand features late this year, including new wheels and up-dated headlamps.

The next-generation Accent with new sheet metal isunlikely to arrive before 2016.

Azera: The full-sized sedan was redesigned for 2012.

The next major change, either a redesign or a re-engi-neering, probably won’t happen before 2017. A freshen-ing may happen in 2015 if Hyundai follows typical prod-uct improvement cadences.

Elantra: The compact car, Hyundai’s current top-seller,will be freshened late this year. The update will add a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with direct-injection technolo-gy to the lineup to complement the 1.8-liter four-cylin-der engine that currently is the Elantra lineup’s solepowertrain.

The 2.0-liter will be an option on the sedan and couldreplace the 1.8-liter in either the Elantra GT five-doorhatchback, the Elantra Coupe, or both.

New Hyundai rwd sedan could challenge BMW 3 seriesGenesis, Sonata updates on the way

see HYUNDAI, Page 20

For 2014, the Hyundai Equusgot a new grille, centerstack and interior.

H

18 • AUGUST 12, 2013

This report about thefuture product plans ofHyundai and Kia comesfrom weeks of reportingand interviews with keyauto industry contacts.Ryan Beene hascovered the rapidascent of the twoKorean brands fromAutomotive News’ LosAngeles bureau sincesummer 2010.

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