Hyundai Motor Group announced on March 27 that it will hire 80,000 people and invest 68 trillion won in Korea over the next three years from this year to 2026. The plan is expected to create about 198,000 decent new jobs.
The announced investment in Korea is a significant increase from the 56.2 trillion won in an investment plan for the next three years (2024-2026) that Hyundai and Kia, the group’s two flagship companies, announced at the CEO Investor Day last year. Hyundai plans to continue its aggressive investment strategy, having invested 12.5159 trillion won in 2023, 15 percent more than originally planned.
The focus of the investment is set on securing core technologies. Hyundai Motor Group decided to invest 31.1 trillion won, or 46 percent of the total, in research and development (R&D), including internalizing electric vehicles, software-defined vehicles (SDVs), and battery technology. This plan was made in line with Hyundai Motor Group’s policy of keeping its core R&D centers in Korea, experts say.
For future infrastructure investment, Hyundai Motor Group has allocated 35.3 trillion won. The first task is to ramp up its production capacity to expand its electric vehicle lineup. After breaking ground for its first new plant for electric vehicle production in Korea in 29 years in 2023, Hyundai Motor Group will accelerate the expansion of its electric vehicle lineup, starting with the first electric Genesis sports utility vehicle (SUV) model in 2026.
Hyundai Motor Group will make a strategic investment of 1.6 trillion won in order to promote next-generation future businesses such as advanced air mobility (AAM), software, and autonomous driving.
Hyundai Motor Group will hire new employees mainly in new future business areas including accelerating electrification and SDVs.
Hyundai Motor Group’s hiring is expected to generate the effects of inducing employment in related industries in Korea. The increase in employment in the automotive sector is expected to induce the creation of 118,000 additional jobs in the Korean auto parts industry, creating about 198,000 jobs. Such employment creation effects are expected to increase further when other industries such as construction and steel are included.
In detail, Hyundai Motor Group will hire 80,000 people in three sectors -- promoting future new businesses; expanding business and boosting competitiveness; and rehiring retired old workers. This is an average of 27,000 new hires per year for three years.
Hyundai Motor Group will hire 44,000 new employees to promote future new businesses. The Korean automotive group is promoting new businesses such as electrification, SDVs, carbon neutrality, and Global Business Center (GBC) projects.
In the area of electrification, Hyundai Motor Group is expanding its electric vehicle (EV) lineup and building an EV factory in Korea. By 2030, it will increase its EV lineup to 31 models and expand its annual production of EVs to 1.51 million units (920,000 units for export) in Korea. As part of this, the group is conducting R&D activities on new EV models and EV-specific parts and modules, developing innovative EV manufacturing technologies, building dedicated EV factories, and hiring a number of new employees for EV production.
In the field of SDV, Hyundai Motor Group looks to transform into products and services that enable customers to enjoy safe, free and comfortable driving and innovative user experiences connected by software. The automaker is also pursuing a software-defined everything (SDx) strategy to build a future mobility ecosystem connected to logistics and city management systems among others by accumulating travel data through SDVs and combining them with AI technology to expand into various mobility solutions.
To realize carbon neutrality, Hyundai Motor Group is replacing electricity power required for its business sites with renewable energy, while actively implementing hydrogen projects and recycling resources. In particular, Hyundai Motor Group is implementing the HTWO Grid solution, which horizontally connects the hydrogen business capabilities of each of its affiliates to provide customized packages optimized for customers’ various environmental characteristics and needs at every stage from hydrogen production to storage, transportation and utilization.
What’s more, new hires will be made for the GBC project, the development of eco-friendly and smart construction technologies, next-generation nuclear power plants such as small modular nuclear power plants, the development of steel plates utilizing new materials and smart logistics solutions.
Hyundai Motor Group’s large-scale hiring plan is in contrast to downsizing plans of other global automakers. Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest automaker, plans to lay off 400 engineers and software technicians in the United States on March 31. That equals 2 percent of its total technical workforce. Volkswagen, in the midst of a €10 billion cost-cutting plan, reportedly cut nearly 5,000 jobs in 2023. GM, which is struggling in transitioning to electric vehicles also laid off 1,300 production workers in late 2023, and 900 or 24 percent in its autonomous driving division.