Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Concept Review

Hyundai hasn't jumped into the hybrid pool yet, but it's about to with a new battery technology.

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Concept Review Let's see, which on-the-come Asian auto maker is still missing a hybrid. Hmm. Hyundai. But they say they're going to fix that ASAP. And here's an engineering buck of what the Sonata hybrid is going to look like when it arrives in 2010. Coupled to their well-known Theta, 2.4 inline Ford gas engine. And of course it's a hybrid, so that couples to an electric more. So far so good. But here's where it gets different. This battery, lithium polymer technology, which they say is ahead of even Lithium Ion, which is what most car makers are still looking forward to. The benefits they say because this isn't a little canister of fluid like a Lithium ion, it's more robust, safer, less likely to run away or have a meltdown fire, weighs less, and holds more energy in a given space, they claim, and also is more resistant to the wear down you get from de- and re-charging a battery over and over. The bigger mission here is for Hyundai to zip themselves, they think, to the top of the green world by being the first car maker selling in the U.S. with a 35 mile per gallon fleet average by 2015, five years sooner than the federal folks say companies have to.