Hyundai Motor posts record quarterly profit on demand for EVs, SUVs

Hyundai Motor Co. headquarters in Seoul [Photo by Park Hyung-ki]

Hyundai Motor Co. reported a record quarterly profit in the first quarter helped by growing demand for its sport-utility vehicles, premium sedans and electric cars.

Operating profit in the January-March period jumped 86 percent from a year ago to 3.59 trillion won ($2.7 billion), according to regulatory filing Tuesday. That’s higher than an estimate of 2.99 trillion won compiled by Yonhap Infomax. Sales rose 25 percent to 37.8 trillion won.

The automaker sold more than 1.02 million vehicles globally in the first quarter, 13 percent more than a year ago, thanks to brisk demand for its Palisade SUVs, Genesis models and Ioniq 6 EVs. Improvement in the supply of components and the weak won also helped the automaker post higher earning in the first three months.

Hyundai Motor also announced that it will offer quarterly dividends from the second quarter and offer a payout ratio of more than 25 percent of its net income to help strengthen shareholder returns. It will also cancel its treasury stock equivalent to 1 percent of its outstanding shares annually for the next three years.

“While uncertainties still persist with high inflation and geopolitical issues, we expect earnings to stay stable as production has improved and we focus on higher value-added models,” the automaker said in a statement. “As EVs become more popular, Hyundai Motor will introduce more models into its EV lineup.”

In a separate statement, Hyundai Motor and its affiliates will set up a 35-gigawatt-hour plant under a joint venture with SK on Co. to produce batteries that for about 300,000 EVs in the U.S. The factory, which will be built near Hyundai Motor’s EV plant in Georgia, is expected to start operations in the second half of 2025.

A total $5 billion will be invested in the plant with the two parties each taking a 50 percent stake. Hyundai Motor will spend 802 billion won in the venture, Kia Corp. 494.2 billion won, Hyundai Mobis Co. 324 billion won and the rest will be borrowed by Hyundai Motor’s North America unit HMG Global LLC, according to a separate regulatory filing.