The year began on a good note for Hyundai Company as its Elantra earned the North American Car of the Year Award. Hyundai Elantra was adjudged as the winner by a panel of automotive journalists. The award was announced at the 2012 North American International Auto Show, which is one of the prestigious auto shows in the world.
On receiving the award, Hyundai Motor America Chief Executive John Krafcik said that "Elantra speaks to the success of our recipe of bold design and great fuel economy. In a year with some truly breakthrough competitors, we are honoured that the jury recognises Elantra's far-reaching impact on the industry."
Hyundai Elantra faced tough competition from Ford Focus and Volkswagen Passat, which were the other two finalists in the category. The finalists were chosen by 50 independent automotive journalists in the month of December last year. The journalists, forming the voting panel, belonged to US and Canada. There are several factors that were taken into consideration while judging the finalists, such as innovation, impact, design and safety. The other factors like handling, performance and value.
Hyundai Elantra is based on the emotional Fluidic Sculpture design, wherein it seems that the car is in constant motion. In terms of design, the car has flowing lines just like Sonata, along with the undercut feature lines that start at the front door. Other features that add to the appeal of the car are muscular wheel arches, swept-back headlights, sleek roofline, hexagonal front grille, side repeater mirrors and fog lights.
Having six-speed automatic transmission or manual transmission, Elantra’s EPA-rated fuel economy is 29 mpg city and 40 mpg highway. Furthermore, the drag coefficient of the winner is 0.28, which is exceptionally low. The car is equipped with 1.8-liter Nu four-cylinder engine and can produce maximum power of 148 hp and peak torque of 177 Nm.
Owing to its clean engine technology, many of the models sold in most of the US states like California and Oregon have earned the Partial Zero Emission Vehicles (PZEV) certificate by EPA. Hyundai has already sold 186,361 units of Elantra in US in 2011.
This sporty model has won many hearts, including that of one of the jurors, Jayne O'Donnell from ‘USA Today’. The juror wrote that “The Hyundai Elantra is sporty, yet sensible. Luxurious, yet affordable. Spunky, but safe. The Elantra is a series of paradoxes and every one is another argument for the latest, impressive entry in the Hyundai line-up.”
