Hyundai launches investment offensive in South Korea

In particular, the company is planning extensive recruitment and investment in the construction and operation of factories for electric vehicles, as announced on one of its Korean websites. Starting with the Gwangmyeong plant, which will be completed this year, Hyundai Motor Group is building EV-only factories in Hwaseong and Ulsan. It will also convert existing plants to all-electric vehicle lines. In Ulsan, a pure EV plant will be built next to the existing main plant. It is designed to produce 200,000 electric cars per year. As is known, Kia’s Purpose Built Vehicles (PBV) will be produced at the factory in Hwaseong.

The Hyundai Motor Group plans to expand its range of electric vehicles to 31 models by 2030 and increase its annual production of EVs in South Korea to 1.51 million units, 920,000 of which will be for export. Although the hydrogen activities of the HTWO division will also be strengthened, the announcement primarily mentions an “HTWO Grid Solution” aimed at producing and storing hydrogen. Hyundai also plans to “further accelerate the development of next-generation fuel cell systems, hydrogen buses and trucks, and the construction of hydrogen stations.” New fuel cell cars are not mentioned.

The billion-dollar investment will help “secure growth engines through change and innovation” in an “uncertain business environment,” according to the company. The large-scale recruitment and investment offensive in the domestic market will be designed to help Hyundai secure its “status as a global mobility pioneer” and strengthen its future competitiveness. To this end, the “next-generation mobility plans” will be based on the increasing electrification of vehicles, AAM (i.e. urban aviation with air taxis), software-defined vehicles (SDV), autonomous driving and robotics.

Many of the 80,000 new hires will be working directly on electrification and indirectly on the Group’s electric cars via autonomous driving and SDV, for example. Specifically, 44,000 people or 55 per cent of the total number will work in electrification and SDV, according to Hyundai. Road vehicles will probably continue to make up much of Hyundai Motor’s business, at least in the short term.

And most of these vehicles will continue to be built in South Korea – even though the ‘Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America’ (HMGMA) for EVs is being built in the US, and individual models such as the Kona Electric are also being built in Europe. However, the investments in South Korea will not only strengthen Hyundai itself, but the entire domestic industry: The Group calculates that the recruitment of 80,000 employees will have a “total employment effect” of 198,000 people, as the direct recruitment will lead to “additional employment of 118,000 people in the domestic parts industry due to the increase in employment in the auto manufacturing sector.” Hyundai said, “The employment effect is expected to increase when other industries such as construction and steel are included.”

“We plan to further strengthen the competitiveness of our companies in the future, focusing on Korea by creating domestic jobs on a large scale and investing heavily,” an unnamed representative of the company is quoted as saying in the press release – CEO Euisun Chung is pictured in the press release photo. “We will endeavour to provide our customers with highly satisfactory services through differentiated technologies and products, not only in new business areas but also in existing core business areas.”

hyundai.co.kr (in Korean)