Hyundia has gone from a small player to a substantial force in the auto industry. That growth may continue if it can deliver on a promise to have its cars average 50 miles to the gallon by 2025.

Oil has been cheap for so long that the auto industry never really had to make much of an effort to make their cars fuel efficient. The only blip on the radar was the 1970s when sky rocketing fuel prices introduced millions of Americans to fuel efficient Japanese cars. Things soon returned to normal when prices receded again and mammoth SUVs took to the road. Alas, the pendulum is swinging again towards fuel efficiency and auto manufacturers are under pressure to produce more fuel efficient fleets. 

Hyundai has seen its opportunity and gone aggressively after it. The company has made its place in the auto industry by offering very creative customer service solutions that simply work. It is now viewing fuel efficiency as another opportunity given the expected rise in fuel prices in the next decades. To this end, the company is promising it will get the average fuel mileage for its products up to 50 miles a gallon by 2025.

What are we to make of this promise? Well, it is a bold one. Consider one simple fact. Hyundai currently has NO cars that get over 50 miles to the gallon! That being said, the company does have the highest fuel mileage average in the United States at 30.9 miles per gallon. Still, the American CEO admits they aren’t entirely sure how they will get to the 50 mpg milestone, but they have some ideas.

The company is envisioning a product offering that breaks down along technology lines. By 2025, the Hyundai fleet will be 80 percent gas driven, 15 percent hybrid and 5 percent electric or fuel cell based. In short, Hyundai plans on meeting its goal by improving the fuel efficiency of gas engines, not by doing a massive conversion to hybrid or fuel cell technology. That should prove very interesting since it seems to suggest there is a lot of room for improvement in a very old technology. 

Will Hyundai meet its goal? I would bet it does. The brand is very reputation oriented, so not doing so would be a real boondoggle.