Auto Fans Club

As Hyundai continues its ascent to the top, the South Korean automaker-that-could is getting bolder every day. This time the company entered new grounds at the Chicago Auto Show with the unveiling facelifted Genesis sedan that gets a new sporty variant for the for the 2012 model year.

The new model sports the R-Spec moniker and comes with a new 5.0-liter direct injection V8 engine pushing out 429 horsepower at 6,400 rpm and 376 lb. ft. of torque at 5,000 rpm, which makes it the company's most powerful series production model ever. The V8 is mated to Hyundai's all-new eight-speed automatic transmission. While the Koreans did not release acceleration figures, Hyundai did say the car's fuel economy is estimated at 16 mpg city and 25 mpg highway.

After registering record sales in 2010, Hyundai seems committed to an all-out offensive with the company reportedly planning to launch a coupe version of the 2011 Elantra and the new Azera sedan in the U.S. within the next year or so. According to an Autoweek report, the news was broken at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention in San Francisco, where the Korean automaker also showed its dealers a photo of the upcoming coupe.

“They showed us a photo of it and it's gorgeous,” said Doug Fox, a Hyundai dealer from Ann Arbor, Michigan. “We weren't expecting that.”

If you were wondering what's next on the Hyundai and Kia Group's agenda of world domination, the answer is the addition of a third brand to the firm's portfolio to compete head on with Japan's Lexus and Infiniti, and possibly even Germany's finest, including BMW and Audi.

The luxury arm would most likely be called Genesis and include the South Korean firm's current rear-wheel drive offerings such as the Genesis Sedan and Coupe, plus the soon-to-be-launched onto the American market, Lexus LS-rivaling Equus.

The automaker, which saw its U.S. market share increase by an overly impressive 50 per cent in the past two years, would further enhance the range of the Genesis brand with a compact sports saloon in the likes of BMW's best-selling model, the 3-Series, and a crossover utility vehicle to compete with the Lexus RX 350.

Hyundai's second attempt at the luxury segment after the Genesis, the all-new Equus full-size sedan, will arrive in U.S. showrooms in December with prices set at US$58,900 for the Signature version and US$64,900 for the Ultimate that gets all the bells and whistles, the South Korean automaker announced today.

Both prices include a $900 destination charge as well as free maintenance for 5 years or 60,000 miles, a complimentary valet service which includes a dealership employee picking up and delivering the car for maintenance, and an iPad that replaces the traditional owner's manual.

Not surprisingly, the Equus is priced much lower than other entry-level proposals in the in the luxury full-size sedan segment such as the Mercedes S-Class [S400 295HP V6 Hybrid $91,000], BMW 7-Series [740i 315HP six-cylinder $70,650] and the Jaguar XJ [385HP 5.0L V8 $72,700] and Lexus LS [LS 460 380HP 4.6L V8 $65,380].