Thursday, February 19, 2009

Hyundai's Equus Flagship Sedan Launched in Korea, could make it to the U.S.

What you're seeing here is the all-new Equus, Hyundai's Mercedes-Benz S-Class-sized flagship luxury sedan that was unveiled today in Korea. Not surprisingly, the actual production model features a much less dramatic design than what we were promised by the teaser sketches released by Hyundai earlier this year. While the outgoing model used a front-wheel drive architecture, the new Equus is based on a modified version of the rear-wheel drive Genesis platform with power coming from the same 3.8-liter Lambda V6 and 4.6-liter Tau V8 engines.

In the second half of the year, Hyundai will also introduce a long-wheelbase version of the new Equus equipped with a 5.0-liter variant of the Tau V8.

Compared to its Asian-market predecessor, the 2010 Equus is longer, wider and taller measuring 5,160mm in length, 1,900mm in width and 1,495mm in height. Technological highlights include a second-generation Vehicle Stability Management System (VSM2), a Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) that employs a vision sensor to monitor traffic lane markers and a Pre-Safety Seatbelt System which on detecting an imminent front-end collision, automatically reels-in the safety belts.

Even though Hyundai has officially announced that there are currently no plans to export the 2010 Equus to the North American or European markets, Korean news outlet Ohmynewsclaims that the Equus will be launched in the States, most likely as the 'Genesis Prestige'.