New Santa Fe Blue Hybrid

This vehicle maintains the overall design and dynamics of the standard Santa Fe, but under the hood it’s altogether a different car.

New Hybrid – Santa Fe Blue

The new Hyundai Santa Fe blue Hybrid was an eco-friendly highlight of 2008 Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris, demonstrating Hyundai’s technical capabilities and its commitment to reducing CO2 emissions.  The new hybrid maintains the overall design and dynamics of the standard Santa Fe, but is altogether a different car under the hood. Hyundai engineers developed a proprietary parallel hybrid drive system which mates the powerful but thrifty 2.4-litre Theta engine to a six-speed automatic transmission and a 30Kw electric motor for maximum fuel economy and substantially reduced CO2 emissions.

And it also can be used as a generator in order to save regenerative electric energy to the battery. This proprietary parallel hybrid drive architecture will serve as the foundation for all future hybrid drive vehicles to be developed by Hyundai.

Developed at the Namyang R&D Centre in Korea, the petrol-electric hybrid technology featured in the new Santa Fe blue Hybrid reduces CO2 emissions to just 148 g/km (combined cycle) and delivers a fuel consumption figure of 6.2l/100km (combined cycle). With an estimated top speed of 170 km/h and a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 10.6 sec, performance has hardly been compromised.

To maximise fuel economy, all of the Theta’s major driveline and cooling system components have been optimised to reduce friction, while the crankcase has been filled with low friction oil engine control software automatically shuts off the engine when the vehicle comes to a halt, cutting emissions to zero. When pressure is reapplied to the accelerator pedal, the Integrated Starter Generator (ISG) automatically restarts the engine.

The Theta’s engine control software governing injection pressure, engine cycle timing and exhaust retreatment rates has been revised to further reduce fuel consumption. In addition, the latest electric motor-assisted steering system reduces power drain, and very low resistance tyres further optimize fuel economy.

Electric propulsion for the new Santa Fe blue Hybrid is provided by a 30kW electric motor (205Nm) which is coupled directly to the six-speed automatic transmission. The top three gear ratios have been extended to ensure lower engine revolutions per minute (RPM) and further enhance fuel economy. Electrical power is stored in a 270V Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery (5.3Ah/270V) which has significant advantages over lithium-ion batteries, including higher energy density and lower manufacturing costs. Li-Poly is also more resistant to physical damage and can also take more charge-discharge cycles before storage capacity begins to degrade.

The Santa Fe blue Hybrid features an innovative three-piece panorama sunroof. The moveable glass top has UV filtration which reduces thermal loading without restricting light transparency. And to protect cabin occupants against solar radiation, an adjustable shade can be operated separately from the glass top. The modular system solution was developed Magna Car Top System.