Hyundai’s 38mpg Santa Fe blue Hybrid Revealed

Maintaining the Santa Fe’s overall design and dynamics, Hyundai has developed a hybrid study of its mid-size SUV model that will make its world premiere at the Paris motorshow. The Korean automaker’s engineers have equipped the Santa Fe with a proprietary parallel hybrid drive system that mates the 2.4-litre Theta engine to a 41PS electric motor coupled directly to the six-speed automatic transmission. Electrical power is stored in a 270V Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery. -Continued

To further reduce fuel consumption, Hyundai’s engineers also optimized the 2.4-litre petrol engine’s ECU module and revised major driveline and cooling system components. Other improvements over the standard Santa Fe include the low resistance tires and the extended top three gear ratios. Together these changes allow the Santa Fe to deliver a fuel consumption figure in the EU combined cycle of 6.2 lt/100km or 38 mpg US with CO2 emissions of 148 g/km. According to Hyundai, the Santa Fe blue Hybrid can achieve a top speed of 170 km/h or 105 mph.

Hyundai to Show 38MPG Santa-Fe Hybrid Concept in Paris

Alongside the new i20 supermini and the low-emissions i20 i-blue concept, Hyundai’s Paris Motor Show stand will also host the world premier of the Santa FE Concept that is equipped with a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain. Hyundai hasn't released any pictures yet but the Korean automaker said that the concept maintains the overall design of the existing Santa Fe.

Under the hood the concept features a new hybrid drive system, which mates the current 2.4-litre petrol engine to a six-speed automatic transmission and a 30kW electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries. According to Hyundai, the result is CO2 emissions of 148g/km and an average fuel consumption figure of 38 mpg US or 6.2 lt-100km.