“‘The New Grandeur Hybrid’ (The New Grandeur) offers a spacious interior and a quiet driving feel as its strengths.”

On the 9th, the artificial intelligence (AI) agent ‘GleO AI’ installed in Hyundai Motor’s The New Grandeur selected ‘quietness’ as an advantage of its own hardware. It sounded like it aims to deliver EV-level quietness to provide comfort.

In fact, the technologies applied to The New Grandeur unveiled that day at Hyundai Motor’s “The New Grandeur Tech Pop-up Store” in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, appeared focused on enhancing a ‘comfortable ride experience’. In particular, what drew the most attention were the technologies implemented to suppress The New Grandeur’s fundamental vibration and noise.

Representative among them, the ‘engine stop-angle control technology’ optimizes the engine crankshaft position with the motor when the hybrid’s engine stops so that the least vibration occurs upon engine restart. Lee Seong-baek, senior researcher on the MLV Electrification Noise and Vibration Test Team, said, “If you have ridden in a hybrid car, you can feel a slight tremor at the moment the engine turns on after quietly running on the motor. Developers call this start-up dissonance,” adding, “(Through this technology) we were able to reduce vibration upon engine restart by up to 51%.”

The ‘motor reverse-phase control technology’ also contributes to a quiet ride. The hybrid motor generates torque opposite to the vibrations produced by the engine, canceling vibration within the vehicle interior itself. The degree of interior noise improvement from this technology is about 3㏈ (decibels), which is not a large absolute figure, but it offered a glimpse of Hyundai Motor’s technical intent to maintain quietness even at the moments when the engine engages in driving.

Changes aimed at enhancing passengers’ ‘comfort’ also stood out. The reclining seats applied to the second row are representative. Researcher Hong Seok-hyun of the Battery Design 2 Team said, “The biggest challenge of this project was to maintain the product value of the reclining seats from the existing gasoline model while avoiding interference between the seats and the battery without changing seat positions,” adding, “The process was not easy.”

Additionally, The New Grandeur for the first time features ‘Pedal Misoperation Safety Assist (PMSA)’, which detects sudden acceleration at low speeds and obstacles to assist braking, and ‘Memory Reverse Assist (MRA)’, which automatically reverses along stored driving routes of up to 50ｍ. A first-row monitoring system and a MagSafe-compatible dual smartphone wireless charging system have also been newly installed.

Hyundai Motor’s The New Grandeur Tech Pop-up Store will run in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, through the 10th.