BEIJING (Yonhap) ― Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s top carmaker, said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Baidu Inc., China’s top search engine, to sell cars that are equipped with Internet access and in-vehicle infotainment services. Riding a wave of popularity of smartphones and other wearable gadgets, the global auto industry is increasingly betting on cars that can be connected to the Internet with drivers’ smartphones or even without them. Baidu launched its first soft

The presidential office said Tuesday that South Korea will help nurture the country's southwestern region as a center of automotive startups in cooperation with Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest carmaker.Cheong Wa Dae said Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller sister company Kia Motors Corp. will provide about 1,000 unused patents to those who want to open automotive startups in an innovation center in Gwangju, a city located about 330 kilometers south of Seoul."Hyundai Motor will offer

South Korea’s top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. saw their combined market share in the luxury car segment climb up last year in the United States, industry data showed Monday.Combined sales of Hyundai’s Genesis and Equus and Kia’s K9 in the United States advanced 3.1 percent on-year in 2014 to 23,878 units, according to the data. The market share of the three luxury sedans also inched up 0.5 percent point to 7.2 percent over the cited period in the U.S. pr

South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. launched its new edition of the i40 family vehicle in its home market on Monday, putting emphasis on a new diesel engine that ups fuel efficiency. Both the sedan and wagon models of the new i40 are updated with a Euro 6-compliant diesel engine and paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, according to the automaker. The 1.7-liter variable geometry turbo diesel engine version has a maximum city-highway fuel mileage of 16.7 kilometers per lite

PARIS (AFP) ― New car sales in Europe rose by nearly 6 percent in 2014, ending a long slump in activity that began in 2007, but analysts warn the sector has not yet turned the corner in the region.The European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association said last week that 2014 new car sales grew by 5.7 percent, but noted current volumes of activity remain significantly lower than they were before the global financial crisis that drove the sector into six years of decline.Europe’s continuing economic

U.S. regulators will add automatic braking to a list of technologies considered as beneficial to safety in its influential star-rating consumer advisory system.Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced the change Thursday at a meeting in Washington with automotive engineers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration currently rates cars based on the results of frontal and side crash tests as well as rollover propensity on a scale of one to five stars, with five being the highest s

Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Friday its net profit dropped 21.6 percent on-year in 2014 as profitability worsened from the strong won and unfavorable business conditions in global markets.Net income came to 2.99 trillion won ($2.75 billion) last year, compared with 3.82 trillion won reported a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.Operating profit also fell 19 percent on-year to 2.57 trillion won, the lowest in four years, while sales edged down

GM Korea Co. uncloaked on Thursday the latest edition of its Cruze compact car that comes with an upgraded design for the sedan first introduced in the local market in 2011. "The Amazing New Cruze 2015 is just the first step of much more to come," said Sergio Rocha, head of GM Korea during a media event held in western Seoul. "This year, we'll have 10 launch events in South Korea, starting today with the Cruze 2015.""You should expect new innovations on both the Chevrolet, our mainstream brand,

European car sales in 2014 rose the first time in seven years, approaching the top end of industry executives’ forecasts as buyers seeking to replace vehicles chose new low-cost models from Renault and Volkswagen.Registrations increased 5.4 percent to 13 million cars, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said. That compares with growth estimates late last year ranging from 2 percent predicted by PSA Peugeot Citroen chief executive Carlos Tavares to 6 percent foreseen

South Korea's No. 1 automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. both shed market share in Europe in 2014, despite having sold more cars on-year, official data showed Sunday.The two automakers' market shares in the region slipped 0.1 percentage point each for the whole of 2014, coming to 3.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively, according to the data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.Their total number of cars sold in Europe, however, moved