With the whole world trending in the direction of energy independence, Hyundai and Kia join the foray, with a new stop-start technology that will provide minor improvements (believed to be around 3 percent) in fuel economy in their upcoming North American line-up. “Start-stop will be a key part of our development activity in the next two product cycles,” said Timothy White, Hyundai-Kia’s senior powertrain manager. So expect to see the technology making its way into the mainstream in 2012, with a more wider release in the 2016 production cycle.

The technology involves turning off the gasoline engines when the vehicle comes to a stop (braking), and later restarting them when the vehicle takes of (accelerating). Ford had previously unveiled plans to implement a similar technology in 20 percent of its global lineup by 2014. However, Ford’s expectations in fuel economy are a bit more aggressive in the line of around 5 percent improvements. Since innovation is what got us into this “environmental mess”, its a relief to see companies relying on the very same innovations to get us out of it.

via autoblog