The all-new Sonata embodies Hyundai’s Sensuous Sportiness design language with a sophisticated four-door-coupe look
Hyundai’s third-generation vehicle platform enables improvements in design, safety, efficiency and driving performance
Hyundai First: Sonata’s Digital Key allows the vehicle to be unlocked, started and driven without a physical key, via a smartphone
Hyundai First: Hidden Lighting Lamps turn chrome when off and lit when on
NEW YORK, April 17, 2019 – Hyundai today introduced its all-new 2020 Sonata at the New York International Auto Show, marking the North American debut of Hyundai’s longest-standing and most successful model. The eighth-generation Sonata is unlike any of its predecessors, showcasing Hyundai’s Sensuous Sportiness design philosophy, an all-new Smartstream G2.5 GDI engine and segment-first technology that can be personalized. Production of the 2020 Sonata starts in September at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama and retail sales begin in October.
“Sonata is our signature product,” said Mike O’Brien, vice president, product, corporate and digital planning, Hyundai Motor America. “Having been one of our first and most successful nameplates, Sonata is our legacy, and it needs to be special and memorable in all attributes. Sonata signifies our vision for future Hyundai designs, great active safety systems and cutting-edge technology that is effortless.”
The new-generation Sonata is the first sedan designed with Hyundai’s Sensuous Sportiness design language. It is a fully transformed vehicle showcasing a sporty four-door-coupe look. The 2020 Sonata represents Hyundai’s new focus on creating emotional value using proportion, styling and technology. From the front, the 2020 Sonata is unlike any other Hyundai. The design is all-new, with cues that don’t immediately appear Hyundai-like and thus encourage customers to take a second look. The 2020 Sonata embodies the evolution of a new Hyundai design theme—a portfolio of vehicles that, like chess pieces on a board, look and behave differently, each with a clear role and function, but together exemplify a cohesive team.
Sonata has a distinct tension on the side, using a harmonious blend of two sharp character lines and pure volumes. Concave and convex forms are also carefully orchestrated to provide a sexy, coupe-like character.
The latest Sonata is the first model to be based on Hyundai’s new, innovative vehicle platform, which delivers increased strength and reduced weight to enable improvements in design, safety, efficiency and driving performance. The car uses an extensive application of advanced technologies to boost comfort, convenience and active safety. It is also the first model to premiere a new collaboration with Bose® to deliver an exceptional audio experience to customers.
“The Sonata holds a special significance for our company as one of the longest-standing and most successful models in the global market,” said Albert Biermann, president and head of R&D Division, Hyundai Motor Group. “The new-generation Sonata is a fully transformed vehicle packed with advanced personalization technology, a new platform and an array of ADAS technologies. We are confident that our customers will be pleasantly surprised by this innovative new model.”
Exterior Design: Sensuous Sportiness Defined in a Four-Door-Coupe Silhouette
Inspired by the dramatic Le Fil Rouge four-door-coupe concept shown at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, the new-generation Sonata has an emotional, sporty four-door coupe look with a spacious and technology-packed interior. The exterior exhibits performance-led proportions that reference the car’s step up in sportiness over that of its predecessor.
“The new-generation Sonata boasts a beautiful, sporty and innovative four-door coupe silhouette,” said SangYup Lee, senior vice president and head of Hyundai Design Center. “We are confident that Sonata will prove to be a yet another successful step for our new design language, Sensuous Sportiness and will provide emotional value for the customers.”
A newly designed Digital Pulse Cascading Grille spans the front of the new Sonata, finishing at the innermost points of new combination headlamps that feature a distinctive and innovative new lighting architecture.
A chrome line flows from the wing mirror, right around the side passenger windows, and returns to the front of the car by running down the length of the hood and ending at a sharp right angle beneath each headlight. This chrome strip features graduated LED Daytime Running Lights embedded with Hidden Lighting Lamps.
Safety
The new Sonata maximizes occupant safety through a range of active and passive safety technologies. Passengers benefit from a comprehensive nine-airbag set-up, while a sophisticated Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) works to alert drivers to things they might miss while driving.
Performance and Chassis
The all-new Sonata is the first model to utilize Hyundai Motor’s third-generation vehicle platform. Offering significant flexibility for vehicle development across multiple segments, the platform enables dramatic innovations in design, alongside improvements in safety, efficiency and driving performance.
The platform delivers an improvement in collision safety through the use of a multiload path structure, Hot Stamping, and super-high-tensile steel plate. The sophisticated multiload path structure increases the energy that the vehicle absorbs in collisions.
Convenience Technology
The 2020 Sonata features a number of advanced comfort and convenience features typically found only in luxury cars, including a sunroof, electric parking brake, smart trunk, Qi high-speed wireless smartphone charging pad with cooling fan, standard Apple CarPlay® and Android Auto®, Text-to-Speech via Bluetooth®, heated and ventilated front seats and split-folding rear seats.
The top-of-the-line audio and navigation display is a wide, high-definition, customizable, 10.25-inch touchscreen monitor with split screens and natural language, and cloud-based speech recognition powered by Blue Link, while the cluster supervision display is a full 12.3 inches. The cluster has four views: utility, driver assistance, navigation and parking assistance. The navigation system includes a bird’s-eye view in Navigation maps, and drivers get HERE HD Traffic flow and incident data without ever paying for a subscription. Dual Bluetooth support is also available, so two devices can be paired at the same time—one for phone calls and one for streaming audio. The navigation system also comes with three years of Blue Link Multimedia/Map updates. Hyundai’s eight-inch display audio user interface, equipped with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, is standard on the 2020 Sonata. The Blue Link connected car system is also available.
