With the global automotive landscape undergoing a paradigm shift towards electric mobility, Hyundai, along with its affiliate Kia, aims to ramp up its presence in the EV segment.
Despite being the world’s third-largest automaker by sales, Hyundai acknowledges its lag behind competitors like Tesla and Chinese firm BYD in the EV sector.
Hyundai plans to create 80,000 jobs in South Korea and establish three new EV factories. This initiative aims to significantly increase annual EV production in the country to 1.51 million units by 2030.
Hyundai's EV strategy focuses on infrastructure, software, battery tech, and autonomous driving. Yet, concerns arise due to increased sales of gas-guzzling SUVs, potentially offsetting EV climate gains.
A Greenpeace report highlighted Hyundai-Kia’s SUV sales increases of over 150 percent in the past decade, urging Hyundai to prioritize the reduction of SUV sales to mitigate environmental impact.