POSCO International announced on Jan. 18 that it has secured an order for 1.03 million units of drive motor cores. These cores will be utilized in electric vehicles of the Seltos class, which Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors plan to produce locally in Europe from 2025 to 2034. The drive motor cores will be supplied through Hyundai Mobis’ electric vehicle factory in Slovakia, with 550,000 units allocated to Hyundai’s vehicle assembly plant in Turkey and 480,000 units to Kia’s factory in Slovakia.
With this achievement, POSCO International, along with its subsidiary POSCO Mobility Solution, has successfully secured supply contracts for a total of 11.87 million units of drive motor cores to Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors over the past 15 months.
With the latest order, plans for the construction of a local production facility in Poland have gained momentum. POSCO International established an investment corporation for factory construction in Poland in June of last year and has been actively pursuing the drive motor core business for the European market.
The production facility in Poland, which will serve as the European hub for POSCO International’s drive motor core business, is planned to be located in Brzeg. Situated near the southwestern border of Poland, it is considered a strategically advantageous location for local sourcing due to its proximity to production bases of global automotive companies in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and other European countries.
The new factory, set to be erected on 100,000 square meters of land, is scheduled to break ground in the first half of this year with the goal of completing construction by the first half of 2025. Upon successful completion, POSCO International will establish a system capable of producing and supplying 1.2 million drive motor cores annually in Europe until 2030.
POSCO International’s consistent efforts to establish a global production network are aimed at mitigating the risks associated with trade barriers in the electric vehicle market and proactively addressing the local sourcing demands of automotive manufacturers.
At the end of last year, POSCO International completed the construction of a new plant in Suzhou, China, with an annual production capacity of 900,000 units. Additionally, the company completed the first drive motor core plant in Mexico in October of last year and is currently considering the construction of a second plant in the first half of this year.
With the full operation of the Poland plant, POSCO International will have a global production system in place, covering locations such as Pohang and Cheonan in South Korea, Mexico, Poland, China, and India until 2030. This will enable the company to establish a production and sales system for drive motor cores, exceeding 7 million units annually. The strategy behind this initiative is to secure a global market share of over 10%.