News - Garage Centraal Aruba

Is The 2022 Hyundai Staria The Ultimate People Mover?

11 November 2021

It’s not very often that a van like the Hyundai Staria comes along and while we’ll have to wait until 2022 before sampling it for ourselves, YouTuber Asian Petrolhead recently had the chance to test it out.

The new Staria serves as the replacement to the Hyundai iMax and could be considered as an alternative to the Kia Carnival, even though it is significantly larger. The Staria is offered with a number of different powertrains depending on the market, and the example featured in this review features the automaker’s 2.2-liter CRDi turbocharged four-cylinder diesel.

This engine is good for 174 hp and 317 lb-ft (430 Nm). Those figures are more than enough for everyday driving duties, although as the YouTuber discovers, it isn’t particularly quick, requiring over 11 seconds to hit 62 mph (100 km/h). Despite this, he notes that the engine has a good amount of torque and works nicely alongside the eight-speed automatic transmission.

A key selling point of the Staria is the fact that it is based on Hyundai’s N3 platform. As such, it drives much more like a car than it does like a big van and that’s not something that could be said with its predecessor.

The interior of the Staria is particularly unique. The example tested was equipped with seven seats and the reviewer was particularly impressed with the second row that has a pair of captain’s chairs that can be fully reclined. Other nice interior features include manual side window blinds and an ambient lighting system.

Source: Car Scoops

2022 Hyundai Tucson driveway and infotainment test | No knobs? No probs

22 July 2021

Hyundai's 2022 redesign of its compact Tucson was about as comprehensive as they come. The switch to a new chassis brought with it a larger and more usable interior package, a redesigned cabin and a new set of powertrains. The interior overhaul included a brand-new infotainment system that happens to be suspiciously free of knobs. Harrumph.

After spending a day with a 2022 Tucson hybrid earlier this year, I came away very impressed by the interior, as you can tell from the TikTok clip above. It looks great, feels great, and apart from a few small quibbles (like the volume controls and push-button gear selector), the cabin of these Limited models (the base car gets a different center stack switch setup) is fairly conventionally and intuitively laid out. If anything, I expected the lack of physical controls to be my biggest gripe with the Tucson long-term, but that turned out not to be the case.

Let's start with the obvious: it works. Functionally, the Tucson's infotainment is no different than what we've seen in Hyundai's other recent offerings. The 10.25-inch screen looks larger than its dimensions suggest here (the Sonata's is 12.3 inches, for comparison) because it sits flush with the large, glossy bezel that houses all of the capacitive control surfaces. Yes, you have to hunt around for controls and the lack of tactile feedback can be frustrating, especially if you're on a bumpy road and pecking at one of the smaller toggles. But Hyundai included an audible "beep" for each of its capacitive buttons, so at least you know your inputs have been accepted.

It also helps that Hyundai's voice controls are quite good. I happened to spend time in the new Tucson and a 2021 Ford Mustang on the same day, and was struck by just how much smarter the Hyundai's language recognition is. The older version of Sync in the Mustang required the use of specific keywords to access certain features, which ends up being the voice equivalent of menu-diving. The Hyundai? Just tell it what you want; 9 times out of 10, it'll understand. Plus, the center console does still house quite a few redundant physical controls, including those for the climate control, heated/ventilated seats and heated steering wheel.

The wheel itself has volume and tuning controls, plus those for the cluster menus, from which you have control over most of the driving aids and other driver-centered features, meaning there's no need to dig into the infotainment system or even reach for the stack-mounted volume controls at all. It also has an instant-access button for your favorite feature, which you can designate from within the main screen's settings menu. Think of it like a bookmark you can customize. You can even turn it into a power button for the entire system, if you'd like, and there's a redundant toggle for it beneath the touchscreen so your passenger can reach it too.

All in, it's not bad. Yeah, it would be better with a knob, but compared to other systems that have made the same transition, it's among the best. I can live with it.

Hyundai Creates Innovative New Head-Up Display

30 June 2021

Hyundai has been innovating in impressive ways, promising to bring flying taxis to the world and releasing hydrogen-powered trucks. The automaker has its fingers in a lot of pies and is investing billions of dollars in new technologies as it uses its recent successes to build for the future, but some futuristic tech is already available in our time. In its release of the Ioniq 5, Hyundai briefly mentioned an 'Augmented Reality Head-Up Display', but now we've got some real details on this tech. Being billed as the world's first 'clusterless HUD', this new tech aims to improve safety while making better use of cabin space.

The cluster comes from Mobis (Hyundai's parts and service division) which invested in Envisics, a company from the UK that specializes in this sort of thing. What the system does is bring driving information like speed and rpm to the driver's eye level while also projecting navigation information. This is said to improve both safety and convenience and offers better visibility of info.

Side View Driving

The new HUD is divided into four display areas with three at the top and one at the bottom. The top display areas show speed, rpm, Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) info, and navigation, while the bottom display area shows more basic info like coolant temperature, distance to empty, warning lights, turn signals, and other auxiliary info.

This HUD has a 15-inch display, so it's quite large, but the optical glass installed in the dashboard is fixed in an angled frame that slopes towards the driver to ensure even better visibility. We'll have to wait to see if visibility of the road is impacted by the display, but our more pertinent concern is that sunlight streams may rob drivers of all necessary info if the new HUD system is meant to be see-through. It's unclear what kind of AR HUD the Ioniq 5 will have, but it seems that this may be a different system. Whatever car it ends up being fitted to, Hyundai continues to impress with new innovations. Here comes the future.

Source: CarBuzz

Why electric cars will take over sooner than you think

01 June 2021

I know, you probably haven't even driven one yet, let alone seriously contemplated buying one, so the prediction may sound a bit bold, but bear with me.

We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in motoring since Henry Ford's first production line started turning back in 1913. And it is likely to happen much more quickly than you imagine.

Many industry observers believe we have already passed the tipping point where sales of electric vehicles (EVs) will very rapidly overwhelm petrol and diesel cars. It is certainly what the world's big car makers think. Jaguar plans to sell only electric cars from 2025, Volvo from 2030 and last week the British sportscar company Lotus said it would follow suit, selling only electric models from 2028.

And it isn't just premium brands. General Motors says it will make only electric vehicles by 2035, Ford says all vehicles sold in Europe will be electric by 2030 and VW says 70% of its sales will be electric by 2030.

This isn't a fad, this isn't greenwashing.

Yes, the fact many governments around the world are setting targets to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles gives impetus to the process. But what makes the end of the internal combustion engine inevitable is a technological revolution. And technological revolutions tend to happen very quickly.

This revolution will be electric

Look at the internet. By my reckoning, the EV market is about where the internet was around the late 1990s or early 2000s. Back then, there was a big buzz about this new thing with computers talking to each other.

Jeff Bezos had set up Amazon, and Google was beginning to take over from the likes of Altavista, Ask Jeeves and Yahoo. The EV market now is in a similar place to the internet in the early 2000s, says Justin

For those who hadn't yet logged on it all seemed exciting and interesting but irrelevant - how useful could communicating by computer be? After all, we've got phones!

But the internet, like all successful new technologies, did not follow a linear path to world domination. It didn't gradually evolve, giving us all time to plan ahead. Its growth was explosive and disruptive, crushing existing businesses and changing the way we do almost everything. And it followed a familiar pattern, known to technologists as an S-curve.

Riding the internet S-curve

It's actually an elongated S: The idea is that innovations start slowly, of interest only to the very nerdiest of nerds. EVs are on the shallow sloping bottom end of the S here.

For the internet, the graph begins at 22:30 on 29 October 1969. That's when a computer at the University of California in LA made contact with another in Stanford University a few hundred miles away.

The researchers typed an L, then an O, then a G. The system crashed before they could complete the word "login". Like I said, nerds only.

A decade later there were still only a few hundred computers on the network but the pace of change was accelerating.

In the 1990s the more tech-savvy started buying personal computers. As the market grew, prices fell rapidly and performance improved in leaps and bounds - encouraging more and more people to log on to the internet.

The S is beginning to sweep upwards here, growth is becoming exponential. By 1995 there were some 16 million people online. By 2001, there were 513 million people. Now there are more than three billion. What happens next is our S begins to slope back towards the horizontal.

The rate of growth slows as virtually everybody who wants to be is now online.

Jeremy Clarkson's disdain

We saw the same pattern of a slow start, exponential growth and then a slowdown to a mature market with smartphones, photography, even antibiotics. The internal combustion engine at the turn of the last century followed the same trajectory.

So did steam engines and printing presses. And electric vehicles will do the same. In fact they have a more venerable lineage than the internet.

The first crude electric car was developed by the Scottish inventor Robert Anderson in the 1830s. But it is only in the last few years that the technology has been available at the kind of prices that make it competitive.

The former Top Gear presenter and used car dealer Quentin Willson should know. He's been driving electric vehicles for well over a decade.

General Motors' environmentally friendly electric car, the EV1, January 1998 — image captionLaunched in 1998, the EV1 was GM's first attempt at an electric car and failed to take off

He test-drove General Motors' now infamous EV1 20 years ago. It cost a billion dollars to develop but was considered a dud by GM, which crushed all but a handful of the 1,000 or so vehicles it produced.

The EV1's range was dreadful - about 50 miles for a normal driver - but Mr Willson was won over. "I remember thinking this is the future," he told me.

He says he will never forget the disdain that radiated from fellow Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson when he showed him his first electric car, a Citroen C-Zero, a decade later.

"It was just completely: 'You have done the most unspeakable thing and you have disgraced us all. Leave!'," he says. Though he now concedes that you couldn't have the heater on in the car because it decimated the range. How things have changed. Mr Willson says he has no range anxiety with his latest electric car, a Tesla Model 3.

He says it will do almost 300 miles on a single charge and accelerates from 0-60 in 3.1 seconds. "It is supremely comfortable, it's airy, it's bright. It's just a complete joy. And I would unequivocally say to you now that I would never ever go back."

We've seen massive improvements in the motors that drive electric vehicles, the computers that control them, charging systems and car design. But the sea-change in performance Mr Willson has experienced is largely possible because of the improvements in the non-beating heart of the vehicles, the battery.

The most striking change is in prices.

Just a decade ago, it cost $1,000 per kilowatt hour of battery power, says Madeline Tyson, of the US-based clean energy research group, RMI. Now it is nudging $100 (£71). That is reckoned to be the point at which they start to become cheaper to buy than equivalent internal combustion vehicles. But, says Ms Tyson, when you factor in the cost of fuel and servicing - EVs need much less of that - many EVs are already cheaper than the petrol or diesel alternative.

At the same time energy density - how much power you can pack into each battery - continues to rise. They are lasting longer too. Last year the world's first battery capable of powering a car for a million miles was unveiled by the Chinese battery maker, CATL.

Companies that run big fleets of cars like Uber and Lyft are leading the switchover, because the savings are greatest for cars with high mileage. But, says Ms Tyson, as prices continue to tumble, retail customers will follow soon.

How fast will it happen?

The answer is very fast.

Like the internet in the 90s, the electric car market is already growing exponentially. Global sales of electric cars raced forward in 2020, rising by 43% to a total of 3.2m, despite overall car sales slumping by a fifth during the coronavirus pandemic.

That is just 5% of total car sales, but it shows we're already entering the steep part of the S. By 2025 20% of all new cars sold globally will be electric, according to the latest forecast by the investment bank UBS. That will leap to 40% by 2030, and by 2040 virtually every new car sold globally will be electric, says UBS.

The reason is thanks to another curve - what manufacturers call the "learning curve".

The more we make something, the better we get at making it and the cheaper it gets to make. That's why PCs, kitchen appliances and - yes - petrol and diesel cars, became so affordable.

Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery Co. Ltd, which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses, in Nanjing in China's eastern Jiangsu province — image captionBigger and bigger factories are driving down the price of batteries for electric cars

The same thing is what has been driving down the price of batteries, and hence electric cars. We're on the verge of a tipping point, says Ramez Naam, the co-chair for energy and environment at the Singularity University in California.

He believes as soon as electric vehicles become cost-competitive with fossil fuel vehicles, the game will be up.

That's certainly what Tesla's self-styled techno-king, Elon Musk, believes. Last month he was telling investors that the Model 3 has become the best-selling premium sedan in the world, and predicting that the newer, cheaper Model Y would become the best-selling car of any kind. "We've seen a real shift in customer perception of electric vehicles, and our demand is the best we've ever seen," Mr Musk told the meeting.

There is work to be done before electric vehicles drive their petrol and diesel rivals off the road. Most importantly, everyone needs to be able charge their cars easily and cheaply whether or not they have a driveway at their home.

That will take work and investment, but will happen, just as a vast network of petrol stations rapidly sprang up to fuel cars a century ago.

New Hyundai Staria: As A Bold Minivan For The Modern Age

13 April 2021

The 2021 Hyundai Staria has been revealed in full and it truly looks unlike any other vehicle on the market.

The people-mover is dubbed a Purpose Built Vehicle (PBV) by Hyundai and has a futuristic exterior design that includes a bold front-end with LED daytime running lights and a light bar that run across the width of the vehicle. Hyundai’s designers have also equipped the Staria with a low and wide grille while the main headlamps are located on either side of this grille.

Unique design touches continue along the sides where the windows extend lower than is usual. Meanwhile, the rear includes large vertical taillights with a Parametric Pixel lamp design similar to the all-electric Ioniq 5. Shoppers will be able to buy the new Staria in Abyss Black Pearl, Creamy White, Graphite Gray Metallic, Moonlight Blue Pearl, Shimmering Silver Metallic, Dynamic Yellow, Olivine Gray Metallic and Gaia Brown Pearl.

This is a big minivan

The new Staria has a 3,273-mm wheelbase (129-in.) with an overall length of 5,253 mm (206.8-in), width of 1,997 mm (78.6-in) and a height of 1,990 mm (78.3-in). Hyundai says that cargo space varies depending on how the seating configurations are arranged. The 2- and 3-seater, optimized for business use, offer maximum cargo space of almost 5,000 liters (176 cubic feet). The cargo space dimensions have also been increased to carry three Euro pallets at once.

Hyundai will sell its new PBC in standard Staria and flagship Staria Premium guise and offer 2- to 11-seat configurations. The Staria Premium includes unique features like a tinted brass chrome treatment across various parts of the exterior, including the Hyundai emblem, grille, headlamp bezels, front and rear bumpers, wheels, wing mirrors, and door handles.

The interior of the Staria is a significant step on from previous people movers produced by Hyundai. Key features include a 10.25-inch front display, a button-type electronic shift lever, and a large touchscreen infotainment system.

Staria Premium models takes things one step further. In the 7-seat Premium model, for example, it features ‘Premium Relaxation Seats’ in the second row that recline electronically and have sliding capabilities. These seats also include a one-touch relaxation mode that prompts them to recline automatically. Meanwhile, 9-seat Premium models have second-row seats that can swivel 180 degrees to face passengers in the third row.

All Premium models also come with 64-color ambient lighting and the cabin can be finished in Black, Black and Beige two-tone, or Black and Blue two-tone. Premium models can also be equipped with a Gray and Brown two-tone cabin and a Gray and Light Gray two-tone interior.

New variants coming in the near future

The Korean carmaker said that it will expand the Staria lineup with additional variants over the next couple of years, including limousines, ambulances and a camping model. In addition, eco-friendly variants of STARIA are scheduled to be added in upcoming years.

What powers the new Staria

Two engines will be offered. The first is a diesel 2.2-liter VGT four-cylinder that delivers 174 hp and 318 lb-ft (431 Nm) of torque. This engine can be coupled to either a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic transmission. Sitting at the top of the range is a Smartstream 3.5-liter MPI engine with 268 hp and 244 lb-ft (331 Nm) of torque. This engine is offered exclusively with an eight-speed automatic.

2022 Hyundai Tuscon Fuel Economy Is Mightily Impressive

29 March 2021

The all-new 2022 Hyundai Tucson is gearing up for launch this summer, and it's starting to look very good indeed. The fourth-generation of the compact crossover has got a new and sharper suit, and for the first time, the Tucson will be available as a hybrid and plug-in hybrid. And now the EPA estimates for fuel economy for all but the plug-in hybrid have come in and it looks good for those that value their MPG.

Starting with the piston-only powered version, the base model SE with front-wheel-drive and a 2.5-liter engine. The EPA estimates it to have fuel economy of 26 mpg in the city, 33 mpg on the highway, and 29 mpg on the combined cycle. That's up considerably from the 2021 model's 23/28/25 mpg city/highway/combined.

If you add all-wheel-drive, the new 24/29/26 mpg city/highway/combined is still a considerable improvement over the previous base front-wheel-drive model. Of the figures released so far, though, the base hybrid, the Tucson Hybrid Blue, is the lightest on fuel despite coming with all-wheel-drive as standard. It has an even spread of 38/38/38 mpg city/highway/combined. Its drivetrain consists of a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine matched to a six-speed automatic transmission, an electric motor, and a 1.49-kWh battery. The more feature-laden 2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid takes a slight hit, clocking in with 37/36/37 mpg city/highway/combined.

The EPA estimates for the plug-in-hybrid aren't available yet, and neither is its MSRP from Hyundai. However, we do know it gets a 261-hp 1.6-liter engine and a 13.8-kWh battery. According to Hyundai, it should arrive with a 30 mpg combined figure and get up to 32 miles of range on electric power alone.

Hyundai has been pushing hard into Toyota, Nissan, and Honda-dominated segments over the past couple of years. With its new sharp looks and an upgraded and broader range of drivetrains, it looks like the South Korean automaker is ready to go toe-to-toe with the Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4, and Honda CR-V.

Source: Carbuzz

Hyundai's upcoming Staria van looks like it was beamed to 2021 from 2121

12 March 2021

Hyundai has stretched the limits of its design department in recent months, but the Staria van it previewed in March 2021 blows the boundaries out of the stratosphere. Described by the brand as a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), it looks like a concept from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but it's real and it's headed to production.

MPV is another term for minivan, and Hyundai designers didn't try to make the Staria hip by giving it SUV-like styling cues. It's a monobox model with a roofline that's tall and flat, and a rear end that's almost perfectly upright. Even the blacked-out images released by the firm can't conceal the Staria's head-turning front end, which is characterized by an LED light bar that stretches across the entire fascia and headlights positioned at about the same level as the wheels. They're integrated into an extra-wide grille with bright mesh inserts. Out back, the lights are made up of individual dots that look like pixels, a feature we've already seen on the Ioniq 5 introduced in February 2021.

Hyundai proudly pointed out that the Staria resembles a spaceship. It added that the model depicted in the images is the Premium variant, which is a high-end version of the standard Staria that hasn't been shown yet.

Oversized side windows let natural light into a cabin designed with comfort and technology in mind. The dashboard is dominated by a portrait-oriented touchscreen that replaces nearly all of the buttons and switches normally found on the center stack. Meanwhile, the rear passengers travel on individual seats with retractable footrests. Hyundai promises that the Staria will deliver new experiences for drivers and passengers, but it hasn't yet detailed what it means by that.

Similarly, it's too early for the company to reveal technical specifications, so we don't know if the spacecraft inspiration continues under the hood. Engineering principles dictate that a grille this big is needed to channel cooling air to an engine, but design trends have proven that's not always the case. Even EVs sometimes get giant grilles.

Hyundai didn't develop the Staria to meet up with NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars; the van isn't even an outlandish concept. What you see in the images above is what the South Korean brand will begin building in later in 2021. The model will be available in select global markets; time will tell if America is one of them.

Source: Autoblog