Pushing the limits at Hyundai Motor’s desert track

MOJAVE, California ― A three-hour drive from Los Angeles, a Hyundai Motor Group sign appears on a seemingly isolated road in the Mojave Desert.

Amid the silence stands the Korean auto giant’s California Proving Ground, where the long-anticipated new Hyundai Genesis appeared to be undergoing late-stage validation tests ahead of its official launch on the huge oval track.

“Extreme weather conditions are perfect to test vehicles to their limits. And we can also avoid spy shots before the official launches,” said researcher Kwak Byung-cheol, who is one of 25 engineers working at the facility.

Global carmakers transport their test vehicles via aircraft to the Mojave Desert near Death Valley every year to test them for durability and agility in extreme external conditions.

Hyundai, in a move to expand its presence in the all-important U.S. market, took one step further by creating its own 17.7 million-square-meter proving ground, including a 10.3-kilometer oval track, a vehicle handling course, a paved hill road and several special surface roads.

Only a few car companies such as General Motors, Ford and Toyota currently operate such large-scale testing facilities in the U.S.

Since its completion in 2005, about 300 Hyundai and Kia vehicles are tested every year. Each car has to put in some 200,000 kilometers on the track and across the U.S. before it can make an official debut.

The most significant traits of the facility are the testing roads that replicate the vibration and noise of road surfaces of some 30 U.S. cities, including New York, Detroit, Denver and San Francisco. There is also a 1.6-kilometer sample road tailored after the LA freeway.

“The facility replicates road situations not only in the U.S. Some roads here are also similar to those in Europe, Korea and Brazil,” said Wendell Collins, ride and steering performance manager who also worked at GM and Delphi before joining Hyundai eight years ago.

The Mojave proving ground makes it unnecessary to move the vehicles from city to city to test them.

Automotive parts such as chassis, bumper and headlamps that are sold around the world are also transferred to the Mojave to be tested for durability.

Right now, the Mojave is all about the next-generation Genesis, which is to be launched in Korea on Nov. 26. The U.S. debut is scheduled for early next year.

Since the first two test vehicles arrived in November last year, some 20 units have been tested here.

The sedans were forced to endure up to 33,000 kilometers of harsh testing, which involves making 3,200 laps on the 10.3-kilometer oval track at speeds higher than 250 kilometers per hour.

Engineers were particularly fixated on testing the carmaker’s first four-wheel-drive system for sedan cars ― the HTRAC ― that effectively splits power between the front and rear axle depending on road conditions.

Through these latest technologies, engineers said, the new Genesis seeks to balance between the more enthusiastic BMW 5 Series and the driving comfort of the Mercedes-Benz E Class ― the two luxury models that Hyundai hopes to mimic in not just their performance but also their unrivaled premium image.

“Our goal was to take the best of those two vehicles for our Genesis,” said Andy Freels, team manager of vehicle evaluation group. He didn’t hide his satisfaction and expectations about the new car.

“During the remaining tests here, we will focus more on adding more dynamics to the previous Genesis, which has been a more comfortable car to drive,” he added.

Hyundai’s first-generation Genesis is a best-selling luxury sedan in the U.S. market with cumulative sales nearing 100,000 since its debut in 2008. It was also the first Korea-made car that grabbed the Car of the Year title in North America in 2009.

One interesting fact about Hyundai’s Mojave proving ground is that some of its major challenges were not the scorching weather or the four-hour commute there.

The unexpected stumbling block was the desert tortoise.

Two desert tortoises were found during the ground-breaking work back in 2004, and construction was suspended for months due to opposition from environment groups. Work was resumed only after Hyundai created a new habitat for the tortoise outside the facility and transferred them safely.

Of the 60 billion won ($56 million) budget for the Mojave project, the carmaker spent some 17 billion won into the projection of the tortoise and other wild animals. A total of 28 tortoises are believed to have transferred to the new habitat at the time.

“They are all federally or state protected species so we are required to report any changes in their lives,” said the Hyundai official, adding that co-habiting with the tortoise was a now a part of life at the Mojave track.

By Lee Ji-yoon, Korea Herald correspondent 

(jylee@heraldcorp.com)