From the world’s famous makers of high-quality catalytic converters, Hyundai will be unveiling its fuel-cell electric concept vehicle at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show, the i-Blue. This project is the carmaker’s attempt to foster its campaign in developing Eco-friendly means of transportation. The hydrogen-powered, zero-emission i-Blue fuel cell electric vehicle was born at Hyundai’s Design and Technical Center in Chiba, Japan, and was based on the same third-generation fuel-cell technology of Hyundai. This is widely being developed at the company’s Eco-Technology Research Institute in Korea.

Boasting its efficient Hyundai catalytic converter, the i-Blue signals Hyundai’s big move towards the marketing of fuel-cell vehicles. The past test vehicles were built on SUV platforms but not the i-Blue which has its very own D-segment 2+2 crossover utility vehicle body. Hyundai also plans of mass producing hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles in the future.

“The i-Blue is the first Hyundai designed from the ground up to incorporate fuel-cell technology,” Dr. Hyun-Soon Lee, Hyundai Research and Development President said in an interview. “We have achieved a more compact fuel-cell vehicle that still has the safety, comfort, convenience, and driving range of a conventional vehicle.”

Hyundai has been facing fierce competition in China with other automakers putting pressure on the Korean automaker to slash prices. And with other automakers, Hyundai is referring to Shanghai GM which has dropped its prices by 8.3 to 8.4 percent, FAW Volkswagen which has cut prices by 6.2 to 6.3 percent, Shanghai Volkswagen by 10 to 11.1 percent and Dongfeng Nissan which has offered discount of 8.3 to 9.8 percent.

In order to become competitive Hyundai has also cut its prices and now the company will have to workout on how to improve its cost structure.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 4:49 am and is filed under Catalytic Converter Makes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.