Hyundai Tucsons Traverse Africa

Hyundai Tucsons Traverse Africa

Six stock Tucsons complete 6,200km-long Trans-African journey without a hitch

Dec. 13, 2005 -- An expedition of six Hyundai Tucson sport utility vehicles has successfully completed a 6,200 km-long crossing of the African continent from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean in a demonstration of the Hyundai reliability and performance under highly demanding climatic and road conditions.

“Tucson Coast-to-Coast” was organized by Entreposto VH, Hyundai's distributor for Portugual, for the benefit of Tucson customers and automotive journalists.

Map of the southern tip of Africa, courtesy of WorldAtlas.com.

Starting in the Cape Cross, Namibia's port city on the Atlantic coast, the 22-day-long adventure took the team through the spectacular deserts and mountains of Botswana, Zambia, South Africa and Swaziland before finally reaching Maputo on Mozambique's Indian Ocean coast, their final destination.

All vehicles were stock Tucsons equipped with a 4x4 drivetrain and a driver-selectable 4WD lock to provide a continuous 50/50 torque split between front and rear wheels which came in handy as some 4,000km of the journey was over gravel.

“The cars performed extremely well with just two tire punctures, three air filter changes and one air conditioning filter replacement,” said Pedro Castelo, public relations manager for Entreposto.

The overall fuel consumption was measured at 9.3 litres per 100 km, a respectable figure considering the vehicles were operating for 15 of the 22 days with the air conditioning set at full blast and maximum cargo loads of 300 kg. Temperatures ranged from a low of 13ºC to a high of 45ºC.

“This is yet another illustration of the quality, durability and reliability built into every new Hyundai product,” said Steve Kelleher, president and CEO of Hyundai Auto Canada.

Six Hyundai Tucsons crossed Africa to demonstrate their reliability.