Hyundai is already near the top of the fuel economy ranks in the U.S. market, but that's not enough to meet future requirements. Currently, Hyundai trails only Honda and Toyota in the CAFE race. Going forward, Hyundai plans to upgrade its powertrains and reduce mass to get its conventional vehicles to use less fuel. On the propulsion front, the Korean manufacturer plans to shift to direct injection with both normally aspirated and turbocharged engines. Sister brand Kia already showed the Koup concept last spring in New York with a gasoline turbocharged direct injection engine. That engine will likely appear in Hyundai and Kia production models in the coming years.

Lee Hyun-soon, Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group's R&D boss told Automotive News that Hyundai will add six speed automatic transmissions to smaller and mid-sized cars and an eight speed automatic to the larger Genesis within two years. In addition to more efficient drivetrains, Hyundai will use aluminum, plastic and high strength steel to reduce the weight of its vehicles. While Hyundai is working on hybrids that are expected to start hitting the market sometime in 2009, Lee also said that the weight and cost of batteries means the company doesn't plan any full EVs anytime soon.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

From track to road and back to track again. That is the path for gasoline direct fuel injection. In the late 90s Audi added direct injection to its R8 Le Mans prototype in order to get more power while consuming less fuel. In racing reducing fuel consumption is important because it allows cars to run farther between pit stops spending more time on the track. Direct injection eventually migrated into most of Audi's production engines along with those from parent company Volkswagen. After adding direct injection to the Cayenne GTS and 2009 911, Porsche is now migrating that same technology back to its own race program. The Porsche RS Spyders debuted a new direct injected version of the 3.4L V8 two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio and won the LMP2 class. The output of the DI engine went from 476 hp to 503 hp while fuel consumption dropped. Porsche is not saying how much it went down, but they are evidently still developing the system and optimizing it. For example the engines now run extremely lean under light loads greatly reducing consumption in a manner that would not be possible with a port fuel injection system. In coming years we will be seeing virtually all gas engines migrating to direct injection.

[Source: Porsche]

The automotive world will be getting a new Chevy Equinox bestowed upon it for the 2009 model year, and news from General Motors now places a 2.3L direct-injected four-cylinder engine underhood. Currently, the Equinox comes equipped with a boat-anchor of a base engine in the form of a 185-horsepower 3.4L V6 engine. Of course, there is nothing wrong with a pushrod engine, as long as its been suitably updated along the way -- which this one hasn't. The only way to get a more modern powerplant is to step up to the Sport version with its 3.6L V6 with 263 HP, mated to a nice six-speed automatic tranny. A nice combo to be sure, but a little heavy on the 'go' side for fans of fuel savings.

The Equinox will be joined in 2009 by the GMC Terrain, which replaces the Pontiac Torrent as the non-bowtie branded small CUV from GM. It likely goes without saying that the Terrain will also get the new four-cylinder engine. So far, we don't have specific details on the new engine from the General, but considering how good its 2.0 turbocharged DI engine is, we have high hopes that the 2.3 will be a worthy powerplant as well.

[Source: GM]