Camry Hybrid to face Hyundai in 2011?

Hyundai Australia is shaping up to be the next volume-selling marketer of hybrid-drive vehicles in Australia. The importer has previously declared a long-standing commitment to alternative energy vehicles in the future, but the question of when those vehicles will reach Australia remains unanswered.

First there was the Elantra LPi Hybrid model the company was toying with as an alternative-technology showcase for the brand. Any plan to bring that LPG-fuelled model here was canned when the numbers failed to add up for a business case.

"Certainly, we won't be bringing Elantra Hybrid to Australia," Hyundai's Australian Senior Manager Product Communications & PR, Ben Hershman reconfirmed with the Carsales Network earlier this week.

"There's no current plan to bring an Elantra LPI-powered hybrid car or any hybrid into this country, certainly in 2010."

Questioned as to whether this indicates Hyundai Australia has cold feet when it comes to bringing hybrid-drive models into the country, Hershman demurred.

"The answer to that question is that we're actually looking at hybrid and discussing alternative projects with HMC, but at this stage we won't be bringing a vehicle to Australia this year," he responded.

"I can categorically tell you that that won't happen in 2010. But in terms of generally looking at alternative fuels, we absolutely are discussing alternative fuel strategies for this market with HMC -- we're very proactive with that -- but at this stage, apart from saying 'Elantra, no, at this time', there's no further information yet.

"We're still going through the investigative side of an i45 [Hybrid] and looking at the options that have just been announced in America."

One problem faced by Hyundai in bringing the hybrid i45 to Australia is that as a Sonata variant, it's built in the company's Alabama factory in the US, with all that suggests. For example, can/will an American factory build right-hand drive cars for foreign market consumption? In our experience, the answer is 'no', unless the parent company is a German prestige manufacturer.

Hyundai's plant in South Korea supplying Australia with the i45 would presumably have to gear up for hybrid model production before the car would be likely exported here. If that's the case, what are the prospects of the company converting the petrol internal combustion engine in the car to run on LPG?

Unknown at this stage, is Hershman's response.

"I couldn't comment on that. The only hybrid YF [platform code for Sonata/i45] that we're aware of at this point is what's being launched in America."

With LPG-fuelled cars so common on South Korean roads and the LPI/hybrid technology already developed for the Elantra (and sister company Kia's Cerato/Forte model), such alternative-energy technology in the Sonata/i45 would make some sense. Running costs would be especially low in countries boasting advanced LPG resupply infrastructure -- like South Korea and Australia -- and such a car would be environmentally sound indeed.

But without further word on an i45-based hybrid running on LPG, it remains a pipe dream for environmentalists.

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