[Courtesy of Kia]
The president made the promise during an opening ceremony for Kia's new EV factory in Hwaseong, south of Seoul on April 11, stressing that "the automotive industry which pulled our country's economy should preemptively take actions to changes in the paradigm." Yoon said that the global automotive industry now faces a massive paradigm in the fields of carbon neutrality, accelerated distribution of EVs, and revolutionary changes in autonomous technologies such as super-speed data transfer and AI technologies.
The new EV factory in Hwaseong is Hyundai auto group's second fully built vehicle factory constructed for the first time in 29 years. About one trillion won ($755 million) was injected to build the EV-exclusive factory that would go into operation in the second half of 2025 to produce up to 150,000 units annually.
The Hwaseong plant is part of the South Korean motor group's 24-trillion-won project to boost competitiveness in the research and development (R&D) of technologies, production, and infrastructure for EVs by 2030. The Hyundai auto group plans to increase its overall annual production capacity to up to about 3.64 million units by 2030 and about 1.5 million will be manufactured in South Korea. The annual production goal for EVs in 2023 is 350,000 units.
An unnamed Hyundai said that this large-scale investment is designed to upgrade South Korea's EV ecology and make the country the global hub for the future automotive industry. Through the 24-trillion-won project, a virtuous cycle of domestic EV production, R&D, infrastructure development, and boosting of related industries will be created.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
