EVs, fuel cells and mild hybrids in Kia's future

Kia's not sitting around waiting for environmental apocalypse. The Korean company has a range of technological advances it will introduce in coming years, in order to deal with the twin environmental pressures of peak oil and global climate change.

Already, the company is offering an auto-stop/start facility (named ISG: 'Idle Stop and Go') in its European c'eed models. Within a couple of months, the company will release its Cerato LPI Hybrid (more here) -- a car not confirmed for Australia, but the local Kia distributor is pushing for it.

Under the umbrella of the company's 'Eco Dynamics' brand strategy, Kia plans to introduce a petrol/electric hybrid-drive Optima to the US market in 2011. For the following year, Kia will have a 'commercialised' fuel cell vehicle on the road and a dedicated electric vehicle will join the model range in 2013.

"We're still doing a lot of work in the traditional combustion engine area," says Michael Choo, Deputy GM for Kia's overseas communication team.

"We still feel that our engineers here in R&D at Namyang [Hyundai-Kia's joint R&D centre] have a long way to go. They can still make very significant improvements to both fuel economy, as well as CO2 emissions..."

Among those improvements are 'gasoline direct injection' (GDI) for petrol engines.

"That is one area we are working on," says Choo.

Kia feels pressure from Europe to provide leaner running engines to keep up with its competitors -- and the direct-injection petrol induction development is just one measure to meet those ends. In addition to the work on GDI, Kia is also developing new transmissions -- the Cerato Koup (and sedan) will be offered with the option of a six-speed automatic transmission about 12 months from now -- and ISG will be rolled out to other models.

"Idle Stop and Go is already available in our c'eed lineup throughout Europe -- and will be introduced on a rolling basis to other models," Choo confirms.

However, ISG is currently limited to Europe. Even when Kia rolls out the technology to European models other than the c'eed, it's not guaranteed it will reach the Australian market, although local arm of Kia is keen to introduce the LPI Hybrid Cerato to the local market (more here) -- and that vehicle features ISG.

Kia has long experience developing hybrids in collaboration with Hyundai, but the LPG-fuelled Cerato is its first foray into hybrid-drive vehicles for the private market. Based on the Hyundai Sonata platform (more here), the next generation Optima will also yield a hybrid variant for the US market, but that car will be petrol/electric only -- not LPG-fuelled like the Cerato.

Inevitably, Kia's hybrid-drive product progression will lead to a plug-in model for 2011 and an electric-only vehicle two years later.

In between, the company will launch its first fuel cell vehicle for the private market. As Toyota has found with its own fuel cell vehicle program, the problem with a fuel cell vehicle doesn't rest with developing the on-board technology as much as developing the resupply infrastructure. But it is happening.

"The fuel cell electric vehicle is another area where we are placing a lot of R&D resources and manpower," says Choo.

Kia actually laid on fuel cell versions of the Sportage compact SUV for foreign journalists attending the Namyang facility to drive. To date, the company is still developing the technology, but experimental versions of its Mohave/Borrego large SUV have achieved a range between refills of 750km, which is within 50km of the maximum range achieved by Toyota's FCHV Advanced fuel cell vehicle (more here).

All this background information was revealed by Kia at a presentation during the launch of the new Sorento and Cerato Koup (more here and here).

The Namyang centre is the "hub" of Kia's R&D efforts, but there are other centres of expertise in Mabuk (South Korea), Detroit, Los Angeles (both based in the US), Russelsheim (Germany) and Chiba (China). At Namyang, the Aeroacoustic wind tunnel/NVH testing facility and the crash-safety testing facility are key elements of the installation.

The wind tunnel can generate wind speed up to 200km/h and features a turntable to allow vehicles being tested for aerodynamic efficiency in crosswinds as well. Built at a cost of US $45 million, it costs US $50,000 a day to run.

It's a sign of Kia's improving profile in the global automotive industry that Namyang exists. With Hyundai, the two Korean businesses now occupy the position of fifth largest automotive manufacturer in the world. Kia's sales have been growing strongly since 2004 (notwithstanding the downturn in the global economy over the past 12 months) and, last year, Kia snuck into the list of top 10 manufacturers participating in a quality survey by American publication, Consumer Reports.

It's a very different outlook for the company that was acquired by Hyundai in the aftermath of the Asian economic crisis of the 1990s.

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