Hyundai American Technical Centre, Inc. (HATCI) held a celebratory event earlier this week in honour of 20 successful years of quality and performance testing at its California Proving Ground (CPG).

The 1821-hectare facility, which opened in 2005 and serves as the centre for Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Genesis vehicle evaluation operations in North America, has seen more than 5,000 vehicles across the aforementioned brands undergo rigorous testing on a variety of roads and in extreme conditions to ensure their quality, durability, reliability, and safety.

The grounds include a 10.3km oval track, 185,806-square-metre Vehicle Dynamics Area (VDA), 4.43km winding road track, 5.31km hill road, off-road evaluation loops, and various specially surfaced roads constructed to replicate U.S.A highways.

Team members at the facility perform full vehicle evaluation, durability, and development testing. Vehicle development operations include activities ranging from ride and handling evaluations to Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) tests and Heat Protection assessments. The CPG also features three fully equipped garages and a material-weathering facility to accelerate and assess UV degradation.