Hyundai Motor Group introduces industry-first smartphone-based EV performance control technology; blockchain

Hyundai Motor Group has developed smartphone-EV pairing-based performance adjustment technology which allows users to customize primary functions through a smartphone application—an industry-first innovation.

Drivers can use this technology to adjust seven performance features including the maximum torque output of the motor, acceleration and deceleration abilities, regenerative braking capacity, maximum speed limit, responsiveness, and energy use on climate control.

As electric vehicles continually expand their market share, especially in rental or car-sharing industries, the new technology will allow drivers to use their custom settings in whichever electric vehicle they drive by downloading their profile from the server.

The application provides optimized settings for a designated destination by analyzing the remaining distance and electric energy requirement. It can also accommodate sportier driving by recommending tailored performance settings.

Beyond the driver’s seat, users can share their customization settings online as well as try out other users’ custom settings. Customers can also apply recommended settings by Hyundai based on the condition of roads, from country roads to the city center or mountain ranges.

Hyundai Motor Group will utilize blockchain technology to prevent security issues while users upload and share their custom settings on the server.

In the process of uploading and sharing custom settings, the system encrypts major performance parameters in a blockchain network by creating new data blocks and stores them in the distributed data storage system to block unauthorized manipulation.

Hyundai Motor Group’s smartphone vehicle pairing-based performance adjustment technology is possible due to electric vehicles’ distinctive properties which set them apart from combustion engine vehicles.

Zero-emission vehicles offer unique freedom to modify the drive experience because altering performance doesn’t change the carbon footprint. As such, electric vehicles provide drivers more leeway in applying such technology.

As Hyundai Motor Group is planning to deploy 44 eco-friendly models by year 2025, including 23 electric vehicles, we see the potential of technologies and services inherent in non-combustion vehicles. By developing paradigm-shifting mobility technology like this one, we will continue to strive to improve user experience for electric vehicles customized to individual preferences.

—research fellow JeongSoo Eo from Hyundai Motor Group

The Group expects to implement the technology in future Hyundai and Kia vehicles.

10,000 hydrogen cars planned for US northeast

2015 Hydrogen And Fuel Cell Development Plans Outline The Map

Ready for the plans to bring hydrogen cars to the US Northeast? While we've heard the proposal fromToyota – that it will sell the Mirai fuel cell car there and build H2 stations with Air Liquide – a new series of 2015 Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Development Plans from the Northeast Electrochemical Energy Storage Cluster (NEESC) for eight states says that there will be around 10,800 vehicles and 110 H2 stations in the region by, it appears, 2025. There's not specific table that says so in the documents that we found, but the 2025 date is mentioned repeatedly as part of the eight-state agreement to get 3.3 million
ZEVs on the road in the next ten years. That deal was signed last year.

NEESC, which is administered by Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology Inc. (CCAT), put together a Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Development Plan for Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. When Toyota announced it would sell the Mirai in the Northeast, it list five states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. That leaves Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont as the outsiders, for now. 2025 is a ways away.