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On the heels of sister company Kia Motors' hybrid announcement, South Korean's Hyundai Motor said this week it will show off a plug-in hybrid concept, the Blue-Will, at the upcoming Seoul Auto Show.


A car that looks nicer going that arriving, the concept - with a grille that like a cetacean's baleen-baring, plankton-gulping grin - might better have been called the Blue Whale.


It will get a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder, direct-injected gasoline engine and continuously variable transmission, augmented by a 100 kilowatt electric motor fed by a lithium-polymer battery pack.


Hyundai didn't provide any further details and, in fact, in its official press release doesn't identify the concept as a plug-in with rechargeable batteries. This has led to lots of confusion on the blog-o-sphere, with a number of postings referring to it as a plug-in and others calling it a conventional hybrid.









So before we got caught having to file a correction, we checked with Hyundai's U.S. headquarters and spokesman Chris Hosford tracked down a photo caption he received from Korea that other day. It clearly labels the Blue-Will as a "plug-in hybrid," Hosford said.


That's a technology the lithium-polymer battery chemistry ought to lend itself to as it makes for lighter battery cells so more can be packed aboard for increased energy storage and travel range without a range-robbing weight penalty.




That same lithium-polymer battery chemistry, developed by Korean battery maker LG Chem, is to be used in the Hyundai Elantra LPI (liquefied petroleum, injected) Hybrid, which is slated to go on sale in July, and on Kia's just-announced Forte LPI Hybrid, which follows with an August launch. Neither are plug-ins.




The Blue-Will concept also gets roof-mounted solar panels that are supposed to help extend the battery's range, although most such installations are better suited for powering air conditioners or ventilation fans and don't produce sufficient juice to help much with propulsion.


John O'Dell, Senior Editor

Tags: Batteries, Hybrid, Hyundai, Kia, Plug-ins and Electric, Hybrids, Hyundai Hybrid

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Hyundai's Blue-Will Hybrid Concept; Confirmed: It IS a Plug-In was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.