Hyundai Motor Co. on Wednesday unveiled its third-generation platform that the automaker claims to be lighter but safer than the previous one. A car platform is a shared set of core parts for vehicles, including chassis and engine. The new platform is used in creating the all-new Sonata sedan, due to be launched in South Korea on March 21, and other vehicles.
Hyundai said that the new platform is 55 kilograms lighter and 10 percent stronger than the second-generation one.
According to the automaker’s research team, the third-generation platform is aimed at lowering the car’s center of gravity in order to make the body lighter but stronger. “We conducted elaborate design work for years to lower the center of gravity while taking into consideration everything from securing the driver’s vision and the vehicle stability,” a Hyundai official said.
The third-generation platform is assessed to be significantly more stable than the previous version in terms of minimizing vehicle movement. Hyundai said that when its researchers conducted a frontal collision test that affect one-fourth of the front of the vehicle built with the new platform, it just moved to the side without spinning as much as the vehicle on the previous platform. Less spinning means less impact affecting the passengers on the vehicle, the company said. The new platform is also designed to reduce noise within the vehicle while driving.
“As improvements of the basic platform allows us to develop a new vehicle in a less period of time and at lower costs, we plan to focus our research resources on creating improved platforms,” a Hyundai official said
warum@donga.com