SEOUL, KOREA - Yang Woong-Chul,vice chairman of R&D at Hyundai Motor, said on October 7 that the plug-inhybrid models of Sonata and K5, scheduled to be released next year, will uselocal parts only.
He held a pressmeeting after attending the 2014 R&D Idea Festival held at Hyundai Motor’sNamyang Research Center in Hwaseong in Gyeonggi Province.
Yang said, “Wewill roll out a plug-in hybrid model of Sonata and K5 next year. Since we willuse locallymade engines, inverters and batteries, we expect them to have strongprice competitiveness.”
Plug-in hybridrefers to a vehicle which has both internal combustion engine and rechargeableelectric motor, thereby being capable of using diesel and electricity as fuels.
Unlike otherglobal carmakers which showed off a variety of plug-in hybrid models at theParis Motor Show, being held in Paris from October 2, Hyundai Motor and KiaMotors did not display their own models there, facing criticism that they arenot coping with the changing face of the global auto market.
