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By Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor Co, one of the first supporters of hydrogen cars, has witnessed Tesla coming to power, increasing its territory. He now moves on the offense in the battery market, led by his American rival.
The South Korean company plans to introduce two production lines committed to electric cars (EVs), one next year and in 2024, according to an internal union bulletin noticed through Reuters.
Euisun Chung, leader of the Hyundai Motor Group, which also includes Kia Motors, has also held a series of meetings since May with its counterparts Samsung, LG and SK Group, which manufacture batteries and electronic parts.
The purpose of the publicly announced talks was for Hyundai to check the safety of the batteries at a time when the source is tight as the race for electric cars intensifies, according to various induscheck sources. These brands also get products like Tesla, Volkswagen and GM.
Hyundai told Reuters that it works with Korean battery suppliers “to intensify well” its production of electric cars. He declined to comment on any plans to introduce compromised production lines.
Samsung, LG and SK declined to comment.
The measures imply that the automaker is aggressively expanding its electric capacity, days after Chung announced on July 14 that Hyundai Motor Group aimed to sell 1 million battery electric cars a year and gain a global market percentage of more than 10% through 2025.
There is a long way to go; Hyundai Motor Group sold 86,434 battery electric cars last year, according to data from LMC Automotive’s industry representative. That was above 73,278 sold through the Volkswagen Group, but the 367,500 delivered through Tesla.
Hyundai, the world’s fifth largest automaker with Kia Motors, said its agility allowed it to lead the rate of electric vehicles. “We’re sure Hyundai will never be late,” he added.
NO KODAK TIME
A Hyundai expert, who refused to be known due to the sensitivity of the problem, said the company cared about Tesla when the Silicon Valley company produced high-end cars.
But he became more concerned when Tesla released a less expensive Model 3 in 2017, according to the source he described it as a “strategic victory.”
No classic automaker has managed to reach Tesla, which holds credit for battery and software technology.
Hyundai may also face an obstacle due to its strong union, which is involved in task safety because electric cars require fewer factors and personnel than gasoline cars; At Hyundai, this is partly due to the fact that the automaker manufactures a number of key factors internally for traditional cars, while many parts of electric vehicles are recently outsourced.
The union is pushing for the company to bring together key internal parts of electric vehicles, such as battery and engine packages, to compensate for any labor reductions.
“We do not oppose the electric vehicle industry. Kodak went bankrupt because it was still in the cinema, even when the industry turned to virtual photography,” the spokesman for the Kwon Oh-kook union told Reuters.
“We just need the jobs of our members,” he said.
Hyundai said automakers and unions will drive replacement to remain viable in the long run.
HYDROGEN V ELECTRIC
In 2010, Hyundai Motor Co manufactured 230 electric cars for the government, but they were eventually overlooked at an outdoor study center in Seoul due to the lack of cargo infrastructure, according to Lee Hyun-soon, head of studies and progression at the time. .
In a 2014 book, Lee, who developed South Korea’s first gas engines, said those electric cars were “unrealistic,” that battery costs were also increasing, and that hydrogen cars, a rival blank generation, would offer a “bright” future.
Along with Toyota and Nikola, Hyundai was one of the few hydrogen automakers. It introduced the industry’s first mass-produced hydrogen car, Tucson Fuel Cell, in 2013 and NEXO in 2018.
However, the generation did not take off; Last year, 7,707 mobile hydrogen fuel vehicles were sold internationally to 1.68 million battery electric vehicles, according to LMC Automotive.
In Hyundai’s domestic market, Tesla had its month in June, with its Model 3 beating Hyundai’s Kona EV as well as bmw and Audi’s high-end models.
“Hyundai didn’t expect Tesla to dominate the electric vehicle market so quickly,” Reuters told a user familiar with the company’s thinking.
Hyundai Motor Co has a market capitalization of approximately 25.3 trillion won ($21.2 billion), less than a tenth of that of Tesla, now the world’s most valuable automaker.
While Hyundai sells its hydrogen cars with the K-pop BTS boy band, it plans to introduce up to two hydrogen models until 2025 and 23 battery-powered models.
Peter Hasenkamp, vice president of electric startup Lucid, who once worked at Tesla and Ford, said established automakers faced historic “inertia” to make the transition to electric vehicles.
“Part of the explanation for why we’re in Silicon Valley is leveraging software and electrical engineering expertise,” Hasenkamp told Reuters.
“There are a few generations for big car brands to be informed about how to do this right. It’s a lot harder than they thought.”
(Information through Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Additional report by Heekyong Yang; Edited through Pravin Char)