The 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid will be the first to use lithium-polymer batteries.
Sadly, we can only offer this sneak peek at the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybid Blue Drive, the Korean maker’s first gas-electric model to reach U.S. shores, but what you’ll likely first notice isn’t the hybrid powertrain – which remains hidden beneath the skin – but the sedan’s distinctive front end, clearly meant to give this model a more up-market feel.
Hyundai officials are saving most of the details for the Sonata Hybrid’s official debut, which will come at next week’s New York International Auto Show, but we’ve been able to “gather string,” as journalists often put it, collecting just enough details to highlight what Hyundai has in store.
(For one thing, the NY Auto Show preview will reveal not only the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, but also a new high-performance Sonata Turbo model.)
One of the more intriguing details about the Sonata Hybrid Blue Drive, to use its formal name, will be the first production gas-electric model to use a lithium polymer battery. Its competitors, ranging from the Toyota Prius to the new 2011Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid (Click Here for a review) all rely on older nickel-metal hybrid (NiMH) battery technology.
“The beauty of lithium polymer,” explains Hyundai’s Dan Bedore, “is that it’s not constrained to a box that carves out space in your trunk” or passenger compartment. As Apple discovered, when it started using the advanced battery technology in its iPhone, lithium polymer can be molded into a variety of shapes that are easier, in turn, to stash within a vehicle’s available nooks and crannies. Add the fact that you need barely half as much lithium polymer compared to NiMH,
The batteries will drive an electric motor – details to come next week – that, in turn, will be connected to a 2.4-liter version of Hyundai’s Theta engine. While fuel economy won’t be released until at least next week, in New York, we’re expecting at least 20% better than the current inline-4 Sonata driveline, which gets an already respectable 24 mpg City, 35 Highway.
Set to go on sale during the fourth quarter of this year, the 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Blue Drive will be the Korean carmaker’s first gas-electric model to make it into American showrooms – but Hyundai actually did have an early hybrid, a version of the little Elantra, which it launched in its home market, last year.
(For a review of the 2011 Hyundai Sonata, Click Here.)