Features

LOS ANGELES — Black-and-white is the hot new trend in Hollywood, where directors of Oscars-contending films such as “Belfast” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” are embracing monochrome for its storytelling power.

Kenneth Branagh’s childhood drama and Joel Coen’s Shakespeare adaptation are among a batch of recent acclaimed movies shot either entirely or mainly without colour, as filmmakers seek to tap into the medium’s inherent sense of historical authenticity and humanising intimacy.

“Colour allows you brilliantly to describe people, but black-and-white allows you to feel people,” Branagh said of his deeply personal drama about violence in 1960s Northern Ireland, which is up for seven Oscars on Sunday including best picture.

While a “sweeping landscape of a desert or a mountain range” can be made epic by colour, “an epic dimension of black-and-white photography, on a massive screen, is the human face”.

The choice “makes for a poetic dimension to things that can otherwise seem a little banal”, he told AFP.

Meanwhile, “Tragedy of Macbeth” cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel told The New York Times the effect was “meant to bring theatricality” and give the film a timeless quality. Its star Denzel Washington is in the running for best actor.

Monochrome movies have of course continued to exist since they fell out of mainstream favour during the 1950s, when cheaper colour technology enabled more directors to emulate the bright tones that had dazzled audiences years earlier in “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind”.

In 2012, “The Artist” — a film that was not just black-and-white but also silent — won best picture at the Oscars, while the likes of “Roma” and “Mank” have won Oscars for best cinematography more recently.

But this year’s colourless contingent has grown.

“We all got together... it was a DGA [Directors Guild of America] meeting,” joked Mike Mills, whose family drama “C’mon C’mon” starring Joaquin Phoenix also comes in greyscale, and was nominated at this month’s BAFTAs.

“I love black-and-white. I’m super pretentious. I watch a lot of black-and-white films — they’re my heroes’ films, right? I just adore them,” Mills told AFP.

In “Passing” — whose star Ruth Negga has been nominated for a batch of awards, winning at the Film Independent Spirit Awards earlier this month — the format is used to tackle the issue of racism.

Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut explores “racial passing”, as two childhood friends of mixed racial heritage have a chance encounter in 1920s New York while both are pretending to be white.

“It wasn’t just a stylistic choice. I felt that it was a conceptual choice — to make a film about colourism... that drains the colour out of it,” Hall said at its Sundance film festival premiere.

“We look at faces, and then we immediately put them into these categorisations... the categorisations become important, but they are also in some senses absurd.

“Nobody is actually black-and-white. Film isn’t black-and-white. It’s grey.”

‘Crazy abstraction’

So, why are directors getting on the black-and-white bandwagon now? Is it simply a coincidence?

Experts have pointed to broader trends such as the rise of Instagram and social media, that may explain why audiences — which in recent times may have seen black-and-white films as “old-fashioned” or “boring” — are now more willing to give it a go.

“Most Americans have become their own filmmakers and photographers with the ability to slap a filter onto an image and render it in greyscale or sepia or heightened colour,” wrote Alissa Wilkinson, who covers film and culture for Vox.

“Getting used to seeing colour-adjusted images, including black-and-white videos and photos, could make us associate them with the past less. Instead of being bound by history and time, we start to see them as simply aesthetic choices.”

The idea that black-and-white is a choice to deliberately look less real than the colour-filled world we actually live in has been embraced by several of this year’s efforts.

“Black-and-white is such a crazy abstraction, so does a great sort of magic trick on the viewer,” said Mills. “’I’m not in the real world anymore. I’m a little kicked off into a story, into art.’”

And there was a more specific reason for his choice in “C’mon C’mon”, a movie about an absent uncle — played by Phoenix — bonding with his precocious nephew.

“I have this really cute kid — black-and-white helped just take the cute sting off of it.”

KENT, Washington — A woodpecker settled on a branch overhead as Cindy Armstrong stood near a grouping of trees, gazing at a patch of soil that contained bits of her son’s composted remains. 

Armstrong is one of a growing number of Americans embracing environmentally low-impact burials for their loved ones.

Armstrong recalled that her son Andrew insisted on the so-called “terramation” process after the western state of Washington became the first in the United States to make the practice a legal alternative to cremation in 2019.

“I was mortified,” she told AFP. “Now that I’ve gone through the process, I’m all for this. I will be terramated.”

The composted remains of Andrew, who died from cancer last year at age 36, have joined remains of dozens of others on a hillside in the town of Kent, in the Seattle area, set aside as their resting place.

Thousands of Americans choose “green” burial — which eschews chemical embalming as well as materials like concrete or metal which come with climate-harming carbon footprints — each year.

“He wanted to give back to nature,” Armstrong said on a recent March morning, with trees and plants taking root in the verdant, wet hillside.

The land is owned by Return Home, a startup that has performed 40 terramations since launching in the neighbouring city of Auburn seven months ago.

‘Dying better’

“It’s like these people are teaching us to die better,” Return Home founder and chief Micah Truman said as he showed AFP a warehouse-sized room with racks of metal containers referred to as “vessels”, which hold remains during the 60-day, sealed decomposition process.

The space was brightly lit and upbeat music played. Loved ones who visit during those 60 days can pick songs celebrating the lives of those they have lost.

Bodies in vessels are not embalmed, and family members are invited to add flowers or compostable mementos to the straw and other natural ingredients used in the process.

The amount of organic material added to the vessels to help in the composting process is about triple the body weight of the human remains inside, resulting in hundreds of pounds of compost being produced.

No enzymes are added, the company said. 

Sensors tracking moisture, temperature and air flow synched with a computer to optimise conditions for de-composition.

Halfway through the process, bones are removed and ground into fine pieces before being put back in the vessel to finish composting.

The result looks and feels like ordinary mulch.

Families can take as much or as little as they want, with the rest spread at “The Woodland” in Kent.

Local zoning rules restrict the land — which was once strewn with ruined cars, some scarred by bullets — from ever being built on.

Green burial

Body composting is part of an eco-friendly funeral trend gaining momentum around the world, according to Green Burial Council president Edward Bixby.

“Basically, it’s going back to the earth as we came; dust to dust,” said Bixby, who opened his first Destination Destiny natural burial cemetery five years ago in New Jersey and has expanded to ten US states.

The council has more than 400 members, some outside the United States, according to Bixby.

A single cremation, according to the Green Burial Council, burns about as much fuel as a full tank of a large sport utility vehicle.

Return Home body composting is priced at $5,000, on par with cremation. Traditional funerals can cost double or triple that.

Other green burial options include simply wrapping a body in a biodegradable shroud or putting it in a wooden box and burying it. 

Silicon Valley-based Coeio sells an Infinity Burial Suit that contains mushroom mycelium in a recipe intended to “neutralise toxins found in the body and transfer nutrients to plant life”.

Green burials come with a natural approach to death itself.

Loved ones can be involved with preparing bodies for burial, seeing the departed as being a part of life that continues on.

“Horror movies and things like that have made people afraid of death and dying,” Bixby said.

“We have always had the ability to care for our loved ones in death, we just lost touch with it.”

A recent and gradually more popular arrival to the Jordanian market, the Volkswagen e-Bora follows in the footsteps of the prolific seventh generation e-Golf before it, as an unofficial import and star of the independent “grey market” car dealer and trading sector. A compact electric saloon built on the same versatile and broad ranging MQB platform as the e-Golf family hatchback imported from various markets, the e-Bora is, however, a product of the German manufacturer’s Chinese market FAW-Volkswagen joint venture group.

Sportily conservative

Analogous to the US market’s Mexican-built seventh generation Volkswagen Jetta, the e-Bora is not an “official” dealership model but has effectively become the de facto successor to the combustion engine sixth generation Jetta, previously imported through authorised dealerships in the region and Jordan. A sleeker, sharper looking and more tech-imbued electric take on the compact Volkswagen saloon, the e-Bora may have a slightly more up-market aspiration than the now discontinued Mk6 Jetta, but is just as, if not more, conservative in character.

Bearing Volkswagen’s contemporarily clean lines, sharp creases and now trademark slim, wide, heavily browed and level grille and headlight combo, the e-Bora is certainly modern and up-market in its style, but has a conservative aesthetic air. More muscular than the Mk6 Jetta with its defined surfacing, rakish roofline and deep character lines — including one stretching across door handles and tapering off under its built-in boot-lid spoiler — the e-Bora has the pre-requisites for a sporty style, but nevertheless evokes a more formal design feel.

Quiet and confident

Residing under a beefed-up bonnet, the e-Bora is powered by an electric motor driving the front wheels through a single-speed automatic gearbox, as most electric vehicles, whereby its high revs and prodigious torque output compensates for a traditional multiratio gearbox. Gaining 19BHP and 15lb/ft torque over its older e-Golf relation, the e-Bora develops 134BHP and a mighty 214lb/ft. Little heavier than the e-Golf, the e-Bora is similarly capable, confident and quietly smooth, if not outright sporty in delivery, character or ultimate performance.

Only marginally heavier than the familiar older e-Golf, the hefty 1,560kg e-Bora delivers similar, if slightly improved performance, with the benchmark 0-100km/h approximately estimated as arriving in around 10-seconds. Responsive and flexible at lower and medium speeds, as often the case with EVs, the e-Bora is eager from standstill and in overtaking and inclines on city roads and dual carriageways. Riding a broad, nearly ever-present and almost instant wave of cruising speed torque, the e-Bora’s rate of acceleration trails off at higher speeds.

Comfortable commuter

Brisk through 0-50km/h at 3.5-seconds and with an improved 160km/h top speed over the old e-Golf’s low 140km/h maximum, the e-Bora’s performance at higher speeds is less authoritative than at lower speeds, and also consumes energy at a higher rate than city driving, in contrast to combustion engine cars. That said, the e-Bora’s newer 40kWh capacity Lithium-ion battery approximately doubles its driving range over the old e-Golf, to a more practical 270km according to the NEDC cycle, but expectedly less in real world conditions.

Better suited as a commuter car, the e-Bora is refined and quiet inside, smooth riding, stable and easy to drive, but its utility as long distance driver is limited by both range and charging time, as almost all EVs. Admittedly an improvement on many slightly older EVs, the e-Bora’s optimal 0-80 per cent non-domestic 50kWh fast charging time of 38-minutes is comparatively swift, but pales next to the quick convenience of a petrol fill-up. Meanwhile, 0-100 per cent charging using a 7.2kWh wall charger takes 5-hour.

Classy and uncluttered

A confident and comfortable daily driver, the e-Bora is at its best driven at a moderate pace, but can feel slightly firm over sudden, jagged bumps and potholes. Tidy and responsive turning in, the e-Bora’s generous, near-instant low-end torque can, however, elicit an instinct for torque-steer and under-steer if pushed too hard or if re-applying power too early when exiting a corner. Well controlled through corners under regular driving condition, the e-Bora’s heavy battery pack is, however, evident with sudden, spirited directional changes. 

Well-insulated, the e-Bora’s cabin has a classy, uncomplicated, uncluttered and business-like ambiance, with comparatively good materials and a horizontal design orientation to emphasise space. With a comfortable and well-adjustable driving position and generally good cabin room, the e-Bora is user-friendly and easy to manoeuvre and park despite its reduced glasshouse and lower roofline next to the e-Golf, which offers better visibility and better rear headroom for taller occupants. Well-equipped for is segment, its boot meanwhile generously accommodates 532-litres, despite a large under floor battery pack.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: Front-mounted electric motor

Battery/capacity: Lithium-ion/40kWh

Gearbox: 1-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 134 (136) [100]

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 214 (290)

0-50km/h: 3.5-seconds

Top speed: 160km/h

Range, NEDC: 270km

Charging time, fast charger, 50kW, 0-80 per cent: 38-minutes

Charging time, standard wall charger, 7.2kW, 0-100 per cent: 5-hours

Length: 4671mm

Width: 1,815mm

Height: 1,473mm

Wheelbase: 2,680mm

Ground clearance: 126mm

Luggage volume: 532-litres

Kerb weight: 1,560kg 

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 10.6-metres

Suspension: MacPherson struts, /multilink

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 205/55R16

By Dr Tareq Rasheed
International Consultant
and Trainer

Do you know that happiness is a choice and it’s up to us to intentionally choose it every day? We all have God-given gifts that, when embraced, give us joy. Here we explore more components in the circles of happiness. 

What are the circles of happiness

• Circle of Needs: This circle encompasses all our needs; physical, emotional, mental, social, as well as our need for security, family and self-worth

• Circle of Skills and Talents: In this circle, we define our skills (technical, life, technological, and all other skills we master) and we define our talents, hobbies and passion

• Circle of Desires and Motivators: We all have desires and motivators that differ from person to person. Define all that you feel and explore the energy inside you

• Circle of Values and Ethics: What are your most important values in life? Values are principles we believe in, should direct our decisions in life and are reflected in our attitudes and behaviours

Values are classified under two main categories: 

• Operational values direct our attention to actions and operations, such as quality, precision, continuous improvement and creativity

• Behavioural values direct our behaviours and attitudes, such as respect, cooperation, honesty and justice

How many people work in a job that satisfies all their needs, utilises all their skills and talents, keeps them motivated with a high desire to go to a job that does not contradict their values? The answer is probably close to zero. 

To reach the highest degree of happiness, here is the recipe: 

Define your fourth circle and start from circle two. Define and know precisely what skills, talents and hobbies you enjoy and this will allow circle three to join directly; the saying goes, “do what you love” and you will feel the desire and energy to achieve. For sure, then, circle one is achieved and satisfied. But most people keep circulating in circle number one, thinking that life is to meet needs and once they get a job, they rarely leave it as they get stuck in the circle of needs.

We need patience and continuous effort to keep moving and looking forward to happiness. 

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

CHICHIRIVICHE DE LA COSTA, Venezuela — Efren Rodriguez leaves the table annoyed as his fellow players, drunk and laughing, cry out “Zapato! Get out!”

The 32-year-old has just suffered an embarrassing defeat in a game of dominoes in the little fishing village of Chichiriviche on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast.

Zapato means shoe in Spanish and in dominoes is the equivalent of a “duck” in cricket — a score of zero.

Dominoes “is the favourite past-time for everyone... in the rich people’s clubs just like poor neighbourhoods, in urban centres and rural areas”, wrote late former president Rafael Caldera in the prologue for Alfredo Fernandez Porras’s book “The Art of the 28 Pieces”.

In Venezuela it is played in pairs, like Bridge, making it a more strategic game than when played one-on-one.

‘Killing time’

Efrain Velazquez, the president of the Venezuelan Dominoes Federation, says “70 to 75 per cent” of the country’s 30 million people play the game.

“You will always find a dominoes set in any house and whenever there is a family get together.”

Dominoes is often played in bars while drinking alcohol and in many places, like Chichiriviche, some 50 kilometres north of Caracas, it is played only by men.

Far from the tourist beaches, young men play on old wooden tables, sat on plastic chairs, tree stumps or old beer barrels while the drink itself flows, as does rum, whiskey and anise liquor.

The Chichiriviche players even use a dominoes set that was a freebie from a whiskey manufacturer.

“Take that!” says one player as he slams his piece down on the table theatrically, making the others bounce.

“I play to kill time... it’s emotional. You win, you play another game and you win again,” said fisherman Ruben Mayoral, 26.

“I play football and everything but I prefer dominoes.”

“They gave me a ‘shoe’, I didn’t get one point; Zero! And they were teasing me... it’s always like this,” said Rodriguez.

Star brothers

It is a completely different atmosphere in Valencia where one of the four annual national titles is taking place in a large hotel conference room.

Some 300 seasoned players play in silence punctuated only by the sound of the pieces being shuffled after each game.

Some wear the jersey of the national team, others their state shirt.

And here, women like Carlimar Aparicio are allowed to play.

She says men always tell her she can’t play but then ”they always end up calling me to play with them”.

“It’s a sport,” said Luis Marquina, 41, a seven-time world champion whose brother Carlos, 45, has also been crowned six times as the best on the planet.

“We view it from a sporting perspective, it’s not that you can’t play dominoes with a beer, but when we’re in a competition we’re taking part in a sport.”

There are no winks, no shouts and no theatrical gestures, referees even walk around the room between the tables.

“We have national, Pan-American, continental championships... it is played everywhere in the world. We hope it will be an Olympic event one day,” said federation president Velazquez.

‘Passing comments’

Far away from the world or even national championships in the Petare neighbourhood of Caracas, which is often described as the largest slum in the world, a pensioners club hosts dominoes games every afternoon.

“It’s fun, you have to use your brain. It’s mental agility, a mental sport. You have to think like in chess,” said Pedro Roberto Leon, a retired police officer.

“Sometimes there are arguments but they’re quickly forgotten.”

And while some play, those waiting their turn delight in pointing out mistakes.

“Those that pass comments are the only ones that never make a mistake,” joked Enrique Benavente, 48, a technician. 

BARCELONA — The tech industry has long tried to align with the green movement, though its leaders are often accused of spouting nebulous slogans and making hard-to-test pledges. 

The Mobile World Congress, an industry get-together in Barcelona, certainly saw some sloganeering. But Huawei, Orange and industry body GSMA attempted to flesh out some of the green claims made about 5G.

The next-generation mobile network is being rolled out across the globe, with promises of super-fast Internet going hand-in-hand with claims of massive benefits for the environment.

Laurence Williams of Sussex University in the UK recently led research assessing the available evidence on the supposed green gains of 5G. 

He told AFP how the industry’s claims stack up.

Will 5G be more energy efficient?

Jean-Marie Chaufray of Orange hailed power-saving features such as “sleep modes”, whereby components are switched off when they are not being used, and more energy efficient antennae and other hardware.

He told the MWC that 5G would be “10 times more efficient” than 4G by 2025.

Laurence Williams: “Energy efficiency is only half of the equation. The total amount of data traffic being transmitted across mobile networks clearly matters too.”

“Mobile data traffic is set to continue growing dramatically in the coming years. It is increasingly acknowledged that 5G will at least in part be the cause of this data traffic growth.

“Various estimates have been put out by the industry — some suggest network energy consumption will fall, others that it can remain flat, at least one estimate suggests that network energy consumption will rise due to 5G.

“A recent study from Finland estimated that electricity consumption of the main mobile networks in 2017 was roughly 10 per cent higher than in 2010. The authors argue that this was due to rapidly increasing data usage and new functionalities, especially video streaming.

“Whilst this study relates to the period just before 5G started to be rolled out across the world, it nonetheless demonstrates that improvements in the energy efficiency of networks do not guarantee reductions in the energy consumption of networks.”

Will 5G help achieve zero-carbon goals?

GSMA’s Emanuel Kolta boasted that telecoms companies were “among the leading private sector companies” for committing to net-zero goals.

And he marked out the path to achieving those aims through uptake of renewable energy, more efficient batteries and “low-hanging fruit” like using artificial intelligence to enable component shutdowns in less busy periods.

Laurence Williams: “Encouragingly telcos are increasingly signing up to climate targets and committing to use renewable energy to power their networks.” 

“While some operators already power their networks with 100 per cent renewable energy, a 2021 benchmarking study from GSMA suggested that looking across 31 networks in 28 diverse countries an average of 46 per cent of energy consumption was supplied by renewable sources with significant variation between countries. 

“The operational energy required to power mobile networks is important, but so is the “embodied energy” required to produce network infrastructure. 

“A lot of research looking at the energy use implications of 5G only looks at operational energy. 

“At the very least, we should be sceptical about the claimed energy saving potential of strategies that require the large-scale introduction of new infrastructure based on assessments that fail to consider the embodied energy costs of that infrastructure.”

Does 5G bring wider energy savings?

Duan Hao from Huawei flagged up the importance of the so-called enablement effect, which he said would “accelerate digitisation and decarbonisation across industries”.

The idea is that better connectivity will allow more services and activities to move online, reducing energy consumption from transport and other industries.

Some industry estimates suggest energy saving at a ratio of 10-to-one — every unit of energy invested in 5G will save 10 more. 

Laurence Williams: “A University of Zurich study puts this ratio closer to three-to-one, primarily from flexible work, smart grids and precision farming. 

“However, others have cautioned that 5G-enabled efficiency improvements may simply lead to the greater consumption of particular goods or services or may only partially substitute for older goods or services — people may still attend in person meetings and buy physical music alongside teleconferencing and music streaming.

“Even if 5G does produce enablement effects that exceed its own emissions, it doesn’t necessarily follow that network operators could be allowed to achieve lower levels of emissions reductions.

“Enablement effects are difficult to estimate or measure and clear accounting mechanisms and principles would have to be established to ensure consistency with carbon budgets and climate policy.”

PARIS — Stromae’s mix of dancey beats, quirky style and hard-edged rap lyrics took him to the top of the charts in more than a dozen countries in the mid-2010s.

But then the Belgian-Rwandan star all but disappeared from the limelight — driven to the verge of suicide by severe burn-out.

It has been nine years since his last album, but to the relief of his millions of fans, his recent return with “Multitude” finds the artist in fighting form, showered with rave reviews and ready to break America. 

“Welcome!” Stromae calls with a wide smile, pulling back the curtain in the secluded bar of a Paris hotel where he is meeting AFP. 

There are none of the signs of depression, exacerbated by the effects of anti-malarial drugs, that brought him to his knees a few years ago at the end of an exhausting world tour. 

The new album sets the mood with opening track “Invaincu” (“Undefeated”) and the 36-year-old is revelling in his reborn ambition.

“I have a competitive side... even if I’m more subdued than before,” he says. 

“I see Billie Eilish, Aya Nakamura, Adele who are having mega hits, and I want to try to do the same, to measure up. It’s ego.”

But being Stromae, he’s too thoughtful to let that idea take over: “It starts as a game, but then I realise there’s plenty of room for all us. You can like Aya, Stromae, Billie, Adele — it’s not actually a competition.”

Hell

Not that he has tried to hide his painful period in the wilderness — far from it. 

Comeback single “L’enfer” (Hell) has been hailed for its unflinching discussion of his suicidal thoughts. 

“If it helps some people want to get help, that’s great,” he says.

But there’s no self-pity or naval-gazing in this album.

Its tales are often fiercely political, such as “Riez” (Laugh) which compares the fame-and-fortune dreams of a singer, with a migrant’s dreams of papers and a square meal.

Or “Fils de joie” (Son of joy) where he speaks as a prostitute’s son, confronting a client, a cop and a pimp.

“The subjects that have nothing to do with you are sometimes easier to talk about,” he tells AFP. 

“That song came from watching a TV show about the children of sex-workers. I was really moved by the violence they experienced.”

‘Raise a glass’

His desire to “speak of the invisible” is also in “Sante” (Cheers), another hugely popular single from the album. 

It might sound like an upbeat party tune, with its brilliantly off-tempo dance riff. 

But the lyrics are addressed to the shadow workers cleaning up after the privileged — its chorus a call to “raise a glass to those who have not”.

None of it descends into cheap sentimentality, however: even the ode to his three-year-old boy, “Rien que du bonheur” (Nothing but happiness), is less about love and more about vomit and poo. 

Stromae’s previous albums had already been eclectic affairs, but this time the pallette is even broader, embracing electro, Persian and Chinese flute, Peruvian guitars and much more.

“I’m a mash-up myself — Rwandan father, Flemish mother,” he says. 

“My mother always had this desire to discover the world and she passed it on to me. But it took me a while to appreciate the music she liked. I hated Bolivian music 10 years ago, I love it now. 

“She’s been listening to Japanese music for a long time — I’m still not ready,” he adds with a laugh. “But maybe I’ll try.”

‘Crossing my fingers’

That said, he has his eyes set on one challenging goal: breaking America. 

A major test comes next month when he headlines the Coachella festival in California.

“It wasn’t my ambition in the early days to sing in French in a place like the US, which isn’t used to listening to music in another language,” he says.

“But I’ve always listened to songs in English — not always understanding them but still being moved. I told myself it might work in the other direction.”

His anxieties show a little as he discusses the Coachella gig.

“I’m crossing my fingers, we are trying to be fairly ambitious with the show. There are some robotic arms involved: too much wind and we won’t be able to use them.

“I’m trying not to think about it too much,” he adds with a nervous smile.

An assertively stylised and dramatic design departure from its conservative predecessor, the eight Hyundai Sonata instead harks back to the radically rakish sixth generation model. Introduced in 2019 under the Korean brand’s more individualistic “Hyundai look” approach, the new Sonata gained new tech and incrementally improved driving dynamics, cabin, comfort and materials. However, and more pertinent to the Jordanian market, where it is the sole version available, the Sonata Hybrid arrived the following year, with similarly yet subtly improved drive-line integration and efficiency.

Dramatic direction

A design-led car informed by trendy so-called “four-door coupes” like the Audi A7 and Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, Hyundai’s ambitious goal for the new Sonata is to produce “the most beautiful sedan on the road”. Whether this is so is a matter of personal taste, but it is indeed an attractive, low-slung and viscerally dramatic design. Longer, lower and wider than predecessors, it is meanwhile built on a new platform with repositioned front strut towers for a lower bonnet, shorter front overhang and longer wheelbase.

A front-driven car with a similarly sporty profile as more up-market rear-drive saloons in its overhang and wheel hub to A-pillar length ratios, the new Sonata’s design meanwhile seems aesthetically inspired by marine life, with its broad shoulders, wide stance, sharply creased lines and heavily ridged surfacing somewhat resembling a stingray. However, its wide, almost frowning “cascading grille” design, protruding lower lip and long, low, arcing — almost fastback — roofline and discrete rear light cluster fins instead evoke a more menacingly dramatic barracuda-like sensibility.

Confident combo

Aggressively styled for a mainstream eco-oriented family saloon, the Sonata Hybrid is no outright performance saloon, but nevertheless packs a decent punch when both combustion engine and electric motor are operating in unison. Producing 150BHP at 6,000rpm and 139lb/ft 5,000rpm from its naturally-aspirated 2-litre 4-cylinder petrol engine and 51BHP at 1,800-2,300rpm and 151lb/ft at 0-1,800rpm from its electric motor, it can develop a meaningfully effective combined output of 192BHP at 6,000rpm and up to an estimated 270lb/ft as low as 1,800rpm.

Flexible and muscular riding its substantial low- to mid-range torque band, the Sonata Hybrid accelerates through 0-100km/h in around 9-seconds and overtakes authoritatively. Confident on fast inclines for shorter bursts, it, however, loses some versatility when driven through sustained, high power hill climbs, as batteries deplete and the combustion engine is left to almost single-handedly haul its estimated 1.6-tonnes under such demanding conditions. That said, the Sonata Hybrid is comparatively quick recharging its batteries from the combustion engine and regenerative braking.

Cruising comfort

Improving on its predecessor, the new Sonata Hybrid seemingly allows slightly longer EV driving and smoother electric-combustion integration. From full throttle lift-off, its electric motor seems quicker to wind down, but lacks a combustion engine’s immediacy in cutting power. Returning frugal estimated 5l/100km combined fuel efficiency, the Sonata Hybrid drives its front wheels through a 6-speed automatic gearbox. Smooth shifting and responsive to single ratio manual input downshifts, it, however, isn’t as slick or quick as the non-hybrid Sonata’s 8-speed automatic. 

Comfortable, quiet and stable on highway and in town, the Sonata Hybrid is a natural long distance cruiser that smoothly irons out most road imperfections, but is slightly firm in primary reactions to particularly jagged lumps and bumps, due to sporty low profile 215/55R17 tyres. Easy to manoeuvre with light electric-assisted steering, the Sonata’s rear view camera and parking sensors meanwhile compensate for its low roofline’s reduced rear visibility. Steering is meanwhile accurate and well-damped, but not especially nuanced for road feel.

Less clutter, more class

Better handling and with better body control than predecessors, the Sonata Hybrid is best driven at a moderate, or brisk but within comfort zone pace, rather than at its dynamic limits. Tuned for smoothly pliant comfort, the Sonata Hybrid might benefit from slightly firmer vertical compression and rebound control over crests and dips. Tidy turning in, its grip limits are meanwhile better communicated with electronic stability control in ‘off’ position, but which is perhaps over-cautious when fully engaged, with early intervention through hard driven corners.

Plusher, better equipped and more advanced than its predecessor, the new low-slung Sonata features a cleaner, less cluttered and airier interior, emphasising horizontal lines and utilising an un-obstructive push-button shift-by-wire gear selector and reduced button count, with most features accessed through a wide 12.3-inch touchscreen. Incorporating better materials and softer textures, it is comfortable inside, with good cabin width, legroom and luggage volume. However, given a rakish roofline, perhaps slightly lower seat mounting points would be welcomed by taller occupants, especially in sunroof-equipped models.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, transverse 4-cylinders, & parallel electric motor

Bore x stroke: 81 x 97mm

Compression ratio: 14:1

Valve-train: DOHC, 16-valve, continuously variable valve timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Gear ratios: 1st 4.639:1; 2nd 2.826:1; 3rd 1.841:1; 4th 1.386:1; 5th 1.0:1; 6th 0.772:1

Reverse/final drive: 3.385:1/3.51:1

Electric motor: Permanent magnet synchronous

Battery: lithium-ion polymer

Battery voltage/capacity/output: 270V/1.62kWh/kW

Petrol engine power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 150 (152) [112] @6,000 rpm

Electric motor power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 51 (52) [39] @1,800-2,300rpm

Combined power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 192 (195) [143] @6,000rpm

Petrol engine torque, lb/ft (Nm): 139 (188) @5,000rpm

Electric motor torque, lb/ft (Nm): 151 (205) @0-1,800rpm

Combined torque, lb/ft (Nm): 270 (367) @1,800rpm (estimate)

0-100km/h: 9-seconds (estimate)

Fuel consumption, city/highway/combined: 5.2-/4.6-/5-litres/100km*

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Length: 4,900mm

Wheelbase: 2,840mm

Track, F/R: 1,623/1,630mm

Minimum ground clearance: 135mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficiency: 0.24

Luggage volume: 453-litres

Doors/seats: 4/5

Kerb weight: 1,508-1,601kg (estimate)

Steering: Electric-assisted rack and pinion

Steering ratio: 13.27:1

Lock-to-lock: 2.6-turns

Turning circle: 10.97-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Anti-roll bar, F/R: 21.8mm/18mm

Brakes F/R: Ventilated discs, 304mm/discs, 284mm, regenerative braking

Tyres: 215/55R17

*US Environmental Protection Agency estimates