A SLICK, Savvy SEDAN
Hyundai has finally found its styling mojo in this comfortable and very efficient cruiser
Ten years ago — even five — this wouldn’t have been possible.
I’m not just talking about the fact that the newly revised version of Hyundai’s Sonata Hybrid averaged five litres per 100 kilometres over a week of mixed highway and city driving. No, what I’m talking about is that figure is also bang on the “combined” average for which the Sonata Hybrid is rated by Transport Canada. Not close, not almost, but bang on.
Nor does the electrified Sonata exact much of a penalty for its greenness. It’s plenty peppy — Hyundai Canada makes unofficial claims, but the Hybrid should be able to hit 100 km/h from rest in less than seven seconds — and cruises so easily at 120 km/h, you can’t believe it’s consuming so little fuel while doing so. It handles like a treat, and the tires don’t squeal like those “fuel-efficient” hockey pucks that used to adorn hybrids.
And, my Lord, isn’t it pretty. Hyundai has long been looking for a styling flourish to call its own, and I think it has found it.
Ditto for the interior, which is loaded with the infotainment and safety gadgetry expected from a top-flight family sedan. There’s a 101/4-inch touch screen dominating the centre console, Apple Carplay and Android Auto are standard equipment, and the leather on the seats and doors — not traditionally a Hyundai forte — is much more than passable. Said seats are heated (all four) and ventilated (the fronts only), and your hands won’t get cold holding the steering wheel, either. There’s also a full suite of safety gizmos, the most appealing to customers, claims Hyundai, being the Blind
View Monitor — basically two cameras that replicate the side mirrors in a digital display right beside the speedometer. Most impressive of all, Hyundai Canada has kept the price to $40,099, barely $1,500 more than the equivalent gas-powered model.
Making that relative price hike even more impressive is that, besides battery and electric motor, that $1,500 also includes an impressive array of photovoltaic cells. Yes, the 2020 Sonata Hybrid is partially solar powered. Essentially, the whole roof — about 1.2 square metres — is made of solar panels. That means no sunroof.
Like all cars boasting solar power, the Sonata’s solar roof is more symbolic than pragmatic. In purely technical terms, it pumps out 0.205 kw, which according to Hyundai’s own estimates, is capable of increasing the Sonata’s range by only 3.6 km and that’s only if the sun has been shining all day. For a little context, a 50-kilometre commute might — and I emphasize the word might — see the Sonata’s urban fuel consumption reduced from 5.3 L/100 km to 5.0 and would make absolutely no difference on an extended road trip, pounding sun or no. Perhaps some day solar power will contribute significantly to the greening of the automobile, but that technology isn’t available today. At least Hyundai has its heart in the right place.
It has all sounded pretty rosy so far, right? And it remained so until I started asking a little more from the powertrain. More as in power, speed and acceleration. You know, hustling away from a stoplight with alacrity, passing a long transport truck with urgency, that sort of thing. It wasn’t that the electrified Sonata has no pep — there’s a combined 192 horsepower to be had between the 2.0-litre Atkinson-cycle, four-cylinder gas engine and the 39 kw electric motor. It’s pretty torquey, too.
The problem is the sound. It wasn’t pleasant.
This isn’t a happy powertrain, pleased with serving its master with high-speed internal combustion. Instead, it was rough and coarse, and not happy at all about revving anywhere near redline. Oh, it was more than pleasant enough at part throttle loads, but it sounded decidedly winded when pushed. Making matters worse is a six-speed automatic transmission that feels like a CVT, letting an already noisy engine drone for longer than it should.
No matter. The new, electrically supplemented Sonata is an excellent vehicle. It’s good looking, very comfortable, and most of all, frugal. EV advocates always claim that anyone recommending a hybrid over a battery EV are out-of-touch gearheads, desperately trying to hang on to the allure and romance of the internal combustion engine. Well, there’s nothing alluring or romantic about the 2020 Sonata Hybrid’s engine, and I still recommend it very highly indeed.