“Back in September, 2008, Hyundai was the first and only company to pledge to meet the new U.S. standards early,” said Hyundai Motor America President John Krafcik. “We fully support the President in this area.”

“Increasing fuel economy is vital on many fronts, not the least of which is giving customers cars that are even better for the environment and, in the long run, will save them money, as President Obama pointed out. It was on September 2, 2008, that Hyundai first promised to meet a 35 mpg average fuel economy standard by the year 2015, five years before the then current standard was to take effect. Hyundai remains committed to beating the new Federal timeline for fuel economy improvements,” said Krafcik.

In the coming years Hyundai will be introducing a broad variety of cars and CUVS featuring its “Blue Drive” technologies to achieve the ambitious new goal. These technologies will include gasoline-electric hybrid-powered vehicles, gasoline-direct injection (GDI) engines, high economy small displacement turbocharged powerplants, more six-speed transmissions and an all-new eight-speed transmission, improved aerodynamics, advanced materials and a whole host of other engineering advancements.

Today Hyundai has 8,000 engineers at R&D facilities in Michigan, California, Korea, India and Germany. Many of these men and women are dedicated to developing new technologies to lower emissions and improve fuel economy in all Hyundai vehicles.

These advanced technologies are already being incorporated in vehicles being built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, located in Montgomery, AL, where Hyundai currently builds more than half of the new cars and CUVs it sells in the United States.