George S. May Business Blog

Hyundai, welcome to the cool kids table

Hyundai is launching its first hybrid vehicle, the Elantra LPI, in its home market of South Korea. The release’s timing is a bit bold, if you ask me, as Toyota just released their newest Prius, which made record breaking numbers in the first week, as did Honda with the release of their new hybrid the Insight. Then again, I’m not so sure that Hyundai is really expecting to hit it out of the park so to speak, with the Elantra. Rather, it’s likely that they are using the Elantra to test the waters as well as build a nice stepping stone for the release of their Sonata hybrid due out next year.

Hyundai says the Elantra LPI returns about 62 mpg and is clean enough to qualify for California’s Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle standard.

Hyundai is expecting to sell about 7,500 units of the Elantra LPI during its first 12 months on the market, with that figure set to double by 2010.

Oh, by the way, don’t plan on going out and treating yourself to Hyundai’s new Elantra LPI, the carmaker has no current plans to export the hybrid.

Pricing for the Elantra LPI starts at about $15,700.

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