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Comapny pledges to hit 130g/km of CO2 emissions target

Hyundai plans to cut its average CO2 emissions to under 130g/km by 2012 to meet EU laws that will fine car makers who fail to lower CO2 output.

“We absolutely want to be below 130g/km in 2012 for our entire fleet,” said Hans van Gent, the company’s head of product planning. “Hyundai-Kia is absolutely not intending to pay any of the fines for brands that emit too much CO2.”

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Hyundai plans to cut its CO2 average to 127g/km within three years, a 40g/km reduction on 2007. It will use more efficient engines, sell more diesels and add new fuel-saving technology, which feature on a new Hyundai concept.

The Ultra Low Carbon Emissions Vehicle concept is built on an i30 platform and emits 87g/km of CO2. It combines a carbonfibre body (with a Cd of 0.22) with features such as a solar panel to run the air-con and a variable oil pump.

But adding this technology to existing cars has significant cost implications.

“The introduction of this technology on relatively cheap cars is quite ambitious,” said van Gent. “But you will have to embrace all of them or there is no way of getting near the expected limit of 95g/km of CO2 in 2020.”

Hyundai’s Stop and Go stop-start system will be made standard on all models, starting with the i30 1.4 iBlue. The i10 and i20 will follow in 2010.

Ralf Dennisen

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