HYUNDAI

Korean brand iveste in the ultra-terrain vehicle market

Hyundai announced its intention to build in the North American city of Bozeman (Montana) a center for the development and testing of innovative off-road vehicles – it will be called New Horizons Studio. The work will be carried out in conjunction with engineers from Montana State University.

The object will appear on the territory of the University of Montana Innovation Campus. Over the next 5 years, New Horizons Studio will receive $20 million in funding and the center will have 50 employees. The center will develop and test the so-called Ultimate Mobility Vehicles (UMV). In particular, we are talking about the Elevate and TIGER Project concepts.

The Project Elevate concept was unveiled in 2019. It is a vehicle equipped with robotic legs with six degrees of freedom, and each leg ends in a wheel. This design significantly increases the permeability of the car: the legs function as passive and active shock absorbers when moving on wheels and fully unfold if the terrain is very difficult. These vehicles will be useful in military operations and rescue missions – they are completely symmetrical and can move in any direction with equal success, providing access to the cockpit from all four sides. The concept description mentioned four seats, but in practice it was decided to implement the concept in a two-seat version.

Introduced a year ago, the TIGER concept is a smaller and somewhat simplified version of the Elevate – now it's not a passenger vehicle, but a relatively small delivery robot that can also walk and walk.

The Montana unit will have an area of ​​1,100 to 1,400 m². That means Hyundai engineers will be able to work closely with scientists and test cars on the state's rocky terrain. Construction on New Horizons Studio will begin in June.

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