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Hyundai's first hybrid car gets over 1,000 orders
By Kim Deok-hyun
SEOUL, July 2 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Thursday it has received more than 1,000 pre-sale orders at home for the company's first commercial version of hybrid car.
Starting Wednesday, Hyundai will start selling the Avante LPI, a hybrid version of its best-selling compact car Avante, which is sold as the Elantra overseas.
Unlike conventional hybrid models such as the Prius of Toyota Motor Corp. and the Insight of Honda Motor Co., the Avante LPI is powered by liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and lithium polymer batteries.
"A race is heating up for green cars. Hybrid cars in the green-car race will be vital for Hyundai," said Noh Jin-seok, a company spokesman, explaining the new model.
The move by Hyundai to sell the LPG-electric hybrid, which is only available for the domestic market, is seen as a strategy to better compete with hybrid models of the Japanese rivals at home, some analysts say. In South Korea, where LPG-powered cars are common, LPG is half the price of gasoline.
"While our hybrid technology matched that of Honda Motor, as a latecomer in the hybrid market, we decided to launch the LPG-electric hybrid to appeal more to customers," said Lee Ki-sang, a chief executive of hybrid research and development division at Hyundai.
Lee said Hyundai should be aggressive with its pricing for its hybrid models to catch up with Toyota and Honda.
By the end of this year, Hyundai plans to sell as many as 8,000 Avante LPIs in South Korea, according to company officials. The new car is priced from 20 million won (US$15,800) to 23 million won, about 40 percent cheaper than Honda's Civic hybrid in South Korea.
The Avante LPI runs 17.8 km per liter. While the fuel economy is inferior than that of hybrid models by Toyota and Honda, Lee claimed that the Avante LPI could gain appeal because the LPG price is cheaper.
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