Hyundai wants to sell 1.87-M BEVs yearly by 2030

MANILA: Hyundai Motor Company has presented a new strategic plan to help the company reach its electrification goals and achieve long-term success.

At the 2022 CEO Investor Day virtual forum, Hyundai Motor Company President and Chief Executive Officer Jaehoon Chang and other executives introduced the plans to shareholders, investors, and other stakeholders. In addition, the company announced sales and financial performance goals for 2030.

Expanding battery electric vehicle (BEV) lineups, increasing production capacity, and ensuring hardware and software competence are all part of Hyundai's BEV plan. The company targets to increase its annual global BEV sales to 1.87 million units and obtain a 7% global market share by 2030.

Hyundai also discussed its mid-to long-term financial goals. The company plans to invest KRW95.5 trillion for future businesses by 2030 — KRW19.4 trillion for electrification and KRW12 trillion for software technologies.

Hyundai also aims to attain an operating profit margin of 10% or higher in the EV sector by 2030, with the help of improved hardware and software capabilities and a bigger lineup. On a consolidated basis, it targets to achieve a 10% operating profit margin.

"Hyundai is successfully accelerating its transition to electrification and (is) becoming a global leader in EVs despite a challenging business environment caused by the global chip shortage and ongoing pandemic. Along with our seamless efforts to improve EV value, Hyundai Motor will continue to secure its business sustainability as a ‘Mobility Solutions Provider’ through  advanced technologies of not only hardware but also software,” Chang stated.

Hyundai Motor previously targeted 560,000 BEV unit sales by 2025. In the overall global BEV market.

In order to expand the BEV spectrum, Hyundai plans to release 17 BEV models by 2030, including 11 Hyundai-marque models and six Genesis luxury models.

Three sedans, six SUVs, one light commercial vehicle, and one new type model will be among the upcoming Hyundai BEV models. Hyundai will start producing the Ioniq 6 this year, with the Ioniq 7 following in 2024.

The BEV lineup for the Genesis luxury brand includes two passenger cars and four SUVs, including the Electrified GV70, which will debut this year. All newly released Genesis models beginning in 2025 will be electrified.

Hyundai Motor intends to develop a high-efficiency production process for BEV in order to hasten the company's shift to electrification. The Hyundai Motor Global Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS) will develop a human-centered manufacturing innovation platform as the company's innovation hub in the mobility value chain. Through a flexible production system, advanced level automation, and digital twin technology, the platform is aimed at giving significant innovation in production efficiency. In the future, the technology will be applied to global plants.

Beyond existing BEV production facilities centered in Korea and the Czech Republic, Hyundai wants to progressively extend its BEV production bases, beginning with an Indonesian plant that recently began operations. To help increase manufacturing capacity, the Indonesian plant will start producing BEVs this year.

As BEV production bases expand, the company is attempting to enhance local battery procurement rates by establishing partnerships with battery manufacturers in key regions, including the United States, in order to ensure adequate battery supply. The company aims to source more than half of its next-generation lithium batteries for BEVs through these partnerships beginning in 2025.

Hyundai will also diversify its battery sourcing in order to maintain the competitiveness of future BEVs. By 2023, the company will have enough battery supply to satisfy its sales targets. Hyundai intends to continue working with several battery suppliers in order to get 170GWh of batteries for its vehicles by 2030, including the Genesis luxury brand.

Hyundai is also working with various global partners to enhance the energy density and cost efficiency of next-generation batteries, such as solid-state batteries.

Hyundai Motor plans to launch an Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA) based on the electric global modular platform (E-GMP), which was successfully introduced in 2021 and is the cornerstone of the Ioniq 5 and GV60. The IMA will be used not just as a passenger BEV platform, but also as a purpose-built vehicle (PBV) platform, allowing Hyundai Motor to simplify manufacturing processes and reduce costs.

The IMA will standardize not only a chassis, but also a battery system and a motor. The cutting-edge architecture may be applied to BEV models in all segments, extending their driving range.

Unlike the current BEV development system, which uses various types of battery packs for each model, IMA may be outfitted with standardized battery packs that can be attached flexibly regardless of the model, reducing costs. The new architecture can ensure appropriate energy density and save charging time, thanks to the cell-to-pack system.

Five standardized types of motors will also be fitted on IMA based on model requirements. This modular motor system ensures cost and weight competitiveness, as well as motor efficiency.

Hyundai Motor will also create software architectures that would give customers with a great  ownership experience. The company intends to roll out an over-the-air (OTA) upgrade to new models beginning this year, with goals to extend it to all Hyundai models by 2025. Furthermore, by 2030, the amount of integrated control units can be decreased by one-third.

In terms of autonomous driving technology, Genesis G90 will get the Highway Driving Pilot (HDP), a Level 3 autonomous driving feature, in the second half of 2022. The Motional, the autonomous driving joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, wants to expand the service area of an Ioniq 5-based robotaxi and begin self-driving delivery services this year through collaborations with Uber Eats.

Hyundai targets to accomplish software transformation by strengthening software competitiveness and boosting the business sectors of mobility, connectivity, and other data-driven services. To do this, the company will build dedicated software development centers of excellence in Korea and other countries.

Hyundai's investment in software capabilities will cover technology development for connectivity and autonomous driving, startups and research institutions, and  information and communications technology (ICT). After 2030, the company expects software-related businesses to account for around 30% of total sales.

Hyundai previously stated that it wants to achieve 13 to 14% consolidated sales growth and a 5.5 to 6.5% annual consolidated operating profit margin in 2022. The company aims to sell approximately 4.3 million vehicles in total.

Hyundai Motor also aims to increase shareholder value by implementing a market-friendly return policy. Despite concerns about the business environment in 2022, the company intends to keep its yearly dividend policy same from the previous year.

Photo from Hyundai Motor Company

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