Hyundai companies promise $50 billion of investment through 2025

Hyundai Motor, Kia and Hyundai Mobis will jointly invest 63 trillion won ($50 billion) through 2025 in Korea in an effort make the country the hub for future mobility.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung delivers a congratulatory speech during a ceremony to launch the Entrepreneurship Round Table at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Hyundai Motor, Kia and Hyundai Mobis will jointly invest 63 trillion won ($50 billion) through 2025 in Korea in an effort to make the country the hub for future mobility.

The commitment will be focused on three main categories: Electric and eco-friendly vehicles, new mobility technologies and internal combustion engine vehicles.

A 21-trillion-won investment plan that was declared last week by Hyundai Motor and Kia, the two largest automakers in Korea, is included in the total.

About 16.2 trillion won will be used in the eco-friendly vehicle business. The companies will seek to acquire technologies that are essential in making a wide range of environmental-friendly cars, including hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.

They also vowed to install 5,000 200-kilowatt ultra-fast EV chargers by end of 2025.

Kia will construct a purpose-built vehicle (PBV)-dedicated factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, where the automaker already has a plant.

The PBV plant, which will be built on an approximately 20,000-pyeong (66,120-square-meter) site, will start mass production in the second half of 2025. It will have an annual capacity of 100,000, and Kia aims to expand that to 150,000.

Kia's plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi [KIA]

Development of Used Battery Energy Storage Systems (UBESS), which is a core technology to recycle used batteries, will be made as well.

Another 8.9 trillion won will go for the innovative technologies in the future mobility sector. This includes the development of wearable robots, urban air mobility and autonomous driving.

“We will strengthen our business competitiveness through intensive investment in the country,” Hyundai said in Tuesday’s release. “We intend to lead the paradigm shift of the automobile industry.”

The remaining 38 trillion won will be used in internal combustion engine vehicles to improve the manufacturing facilities.

Hyundai Motor and Kia would like to increase the quality of and improve customer service for their internal combustion engine vehicles, while auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis will work to improve the quality of auto parts that are needed to make the cars.

Sales of internal combustion engine vehicles account for 80 percent of total Hyundai and Kia sales, the companies said.

On Sunday, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung announced a similar investment plan in the U.S. Chung said it will invest a total of $10.5 billion in the U.S. to build an EV-dedicated factory in Georgia, and to develop technologies for future mobility.

Hyundai and Kia aim to sell a total of 3.23 million EVs globally in 2030, gaining a combined market share of 12 percent. It stood at around 6 percent in 2021.

Hyundai Motor plans to introduce 18 EV models through 2030, including those from its luxury Genesis brand. Ioniq 6 is expected to be released this year, with Ioniq 7 next year.

Kia will release a total of 13 EV models during the same period.

Hyundai Motor owns 33.9 percent of Kia while Hyundai Mobis owns 21.4 percent of Hyundai Motor. Kia has 17.3 percent of Hyundai Mobis.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]