Economic Fuel
According to industry sources, Toyota postponed the production of its new eco-friendly vehicle after hearing that Hyundai Motor Company’s hybrid-only vehicle, that has the project name of AE, provides a very high level of fuel efficiency. Hyundai, on its part, has put off the release of the AE until early next year.
The AE is Hyundai’s first hybrid car. At the same time, it is the center of the automaker’s 2020 Fuel Economy Improvement Roadmap, in which Chairman Chung Mong-koo declared that it would improve the average fuel economy of its cars by at least 25 percent by 2020.
Rumors have it that the fuel economy of the AE surpasses that of the new Prius, and Toyota is trying to find out how fuel-efficient the AE is. The fourth-generation Prius is estimated at 55 mpg, approximately 10 percent higher than that of the previous model.
Despite the excellent fuel economy, Toyota is having a hard time trying to fix the release date of the new Prius, because it is said that the AE has a much higher degree of efficiency. The Prius, which is the world’s first commercial hybrid vehicle, has been a byword for eco-friendly cars since its first release in 1997.