Hyundai's first hybrid car gets over 1,000 orders

[PriusLewis]

Originally Posted by justlurkin

That's an interesting point on the patents... The Prius first came out in 1997, right? Does that mean the Toyota patents for HSD is going to expire in 2012..?

(I cringe at the thought of all the other carmakers and their dog coming out with HSD clones..) :P

The patent on the drivetrain arangement that Toyota uses was filed in 1970 by TRW, and they still hold it (I understand Toyota pays a royalty, but it probably isn't much)

Originally Posted by Rybold

First, they haven't spent $$$$$ getting the car to meet U.S. crash test standards and have it approved (I checked Yahoo Autos and there is no evidence that the regular version of the Avante is sold in the U.S.)

As stated before, it's the Elantra here, and is fully certified. These days most "world" cars are certified for everywhere and are about the same in all markets.

Originally Posted by bwilson4web

In many respects, their system sounds like the old idea of putting an electric motor on the rear wheels and using a gas engine on the front ... a do-it yourself hybrid. There are some interesting aspects but just having a motor and gas engine is not enough. The integrated, control electronics is where a lot of the magic happens.
Bob Wilson

Computers are cheap, and if you don't want to recover development costs, software is cheap (it's a one-time, non-recuring cost, since the cost to replicate the software load in car after car is virtually free). Asian car manufacturers have a reputation of subsidising costs to take over markets. I seem to remember Toyota in trouble in the 1970's for selling cars cheaper in the US to gain market share, and higher in Japan and other Asian markets to subsidize the cheap sales here.

[Rybold]

Here is a photo of the new Hyundai hybrid. Click on the link below for more photos.

Go to this link and buy stuff from their advertisers:
Toyota Motor Corp. - Yahoo! News Photos