Automotive Design & Production is the one media brand invested in delivering your message in print, online, via email, and in-person to the right automotive industry professionals at the right time.
Issue link: https://adp.epubxp.com/i/319344
47 The faster C-pillar emphasizes the car's sportiness. Around back, he notes that the exhaust outlets are pushed as far to the sides as possible to provide a solid stance, and, again, to emphasize that this is a powerful rear-drive car. Krsteski points out that the LED tail lamps have plenty of precision detail. (In the front, there are standard LED indicators and fog lamps.) On the inside of the car, "it feels bold and stately," Krsteski says. There is natural wood, leather, and real-metal trim. As mentioned, the V6 version of the car is available with an all-wheel drive (AWD) system, which is new to the Genesis. (It was developed with Magna Powertrain. It uses an electronic transfer case with active torque control. In normal operation, the torque split is 40/60. Depending on road conditions it can send as much as 100% of the torque front or rear.) One consequence of ofering the AWD was the need to redesign and reengineer the platform to accommodate it. Mike O'Brien, vp of Corporate & Product Planning, says that this all new platform, which shares no parts with the previous, makes an extensive use of high-strength steels: 72% of the body-in-white. Moreover, 51.5% of the body-in-white is advanced high- strength steels. The torsional stifness (10 4 kgf-m 2 /rad) is 39.4; the bending stifness (10 2 kgf/mm) is 11.6. The numbers for the BMW 5-Series, it's pointed out, are 30.2 and 9.3, with higher being better. A big contributor to the rigidity is the use of structural adhesives between sheet metal parts that are also spot welded. The 2014 Genesis has 84.5m of structural adhesives. The 2015 model has 123 m. (And as the BMW 5 series was used in the preceding paragraph for comparison: it has 90 m of structural adhesives.) One place where aluminum has replaced steel in the chassis is for the is an extensive use of available sensor technology, such as an automatic emergency braking system, which uses radar from the adaptive cruise control and a front camera from the lane departure warning system to determine whether there is an unsafe closing rate with another vehicle. Should that be detected then at speeds from 5 to 50 mph, it will provide full braking; it's partial braking up to 112 mph. One interesting safety tech—said to be a world's frst—is a cabin CO 2 sensor. The sensor is located under the glove box. It measures the concentration of CO 2 that has built up in the cabin. They've determined that if levels reach in excess of 2,000 parts per million, drivers can become drowsy. So the sensor will activate the ventilation system if needed to bring fresh air into the cabin to counteract drowsiness. shock-absorber housing. Previously, it consisted of 22 steel parts that were assembled. It weighed 40.8 lb. The new one is, O'Brien says, a high-pressure aluminum die casting. It is now two pieces instead of 22, and there is a mass savings, down to 26.2 lb. And as previously mentioned, the 2015 Genesis is available with either a 5.0-liter, 420 hp GDI V8 or a 3.8- liter, 311-hp V6. Both are mated to a Hyundai-developed eight-speed automatic that allows selectable Eco, Normal, Snow, and Sport drive modes. While the engines and transmission are carryovers, O'Brien points out that they have been refned for the new application to provide better performance. Safety was an area of focus for the car. This is manifest in a number of ways. For example, to handle front small-overlap collisions, they laser weld front frame extensions that are used to channel the load forces. There 0614ADP FEATURE Genesis.indd 47 5/21/2014 12:51:09 PM