Big Investment in Future Cars
Hyundai Mobis Co., the auto parts unit under Hyundai Motor Group, will build an electric vehicle (EV) parts plant in Ulsan by investing 300 billion won (US$247.28 million).
The company broke ground for an environmentally-friendly vehicle component plant at the Ewha Industrial Complex in Ulsan on Aug. 28. With a total area of 150,000 square meters, or 46,000 pyeong, the EV plant will mass produce core EV parts that can be assembled into 100,000 cars a year, starting from 2021.
Hyundai Mobis has been continuously making a full-scale investment in facilities to proactively respond to the future car market which is represented by autonomous driving and electrification. The firm is planning to invest a total of 4 trillion won (US$3.30 billion) over the next three years to secure competitiveness in the future car market. It also presented its vision of hydrogen society and started construction of the second plant in Chungju last year.
Ahn Byung-ki, vice president of the electrification business division at Hyundai Mobis, said, “We are also able to realize economies of scale in the EV market which is expanding mainly in North America and China now. We will lead the electrification market in the ultimate direction of developing EV and hydrogen-powered electric cars together.
The size of the global market of eco-friendly cars, such as hybrid, plug-in, EV and fuel cell vehicles, is expected to increase by more than three times from 5.97 million units this year to 20 million in 2025, according to market research firm IHS. All-electric cars are forecast to account for nearly half of the total.
The new plant will supply core components to Hyundai Motor's all-electric vehicles using its Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) to be introduced in the Ulsan plant next year.