2020: Hyundai plans new electric vehicle platform
The Hyundai Group has announced the introduction of a new model in 2020 based on a new stand-alone electric car platform. With the new architecture, Hyundai aims to further reduce the cost of electric cars and increase production efficiency.
The manufacturer has not yet provided further details on the new electric model, but has announced ambitious investment targets for the coming years. The Hyundai Group intends to invest more than 45.3 trillion won (around 35 billion euros) in research and development and future technologies over the next five years. 3.3 trillion won (approx. 2.5 billion euros) will be invested in the electrification of vehicles alone. In December, the Hyundai Motor Group had already presented their fuel cell roadmap “FCEV Vision 2030”, according to which Hyundai and Kia intend to increase their annual production capacity for fuel cell systems from currently 3,000 to 700,000 units by 2030.
The Korean company wants to play a leading role in the global competition for the market in the changing automotive sector. President and CEO Wonhee Lee has recently presented the route to investors in a somewhat roundabout way: The majority of the above-mentioned total investment – namely 30.6 trillion won (around 24 billion euros) – is to be invested in research and development, the modernization of obsolete facilities and investments in vehicle construction, while the remaining 14.7 trillion won (around 11 billion euros) are reserved for future fields such as electric mobility, autonomous driving and mobility services.
From a financial accounting perspective, the Hyundai Group aims to achieve a medium- to long-term profit margin of 7 percent and a return on equity of 9 percent in the Automotive division – the latter compared to 1.9 percent in 2018 – with average annual investment over the next five years climbing to over 9 trillion won (around 7 billion euros), an increase of 58 percent over the latest five-year average of 5.7 trillion won (around 4.5 billion euros).
A number of other figures were also provided: At the beginning of the year, the group had already announced its intention to launch 44 electrified models on the market by 2025 – with forecast annual sales of 1.67 million units. In Hyundai’s view, modesty is out of place: “Accelerated by its future investment strategy, the Group aims to spearhead global vehicle electrification and become one of the world’s top three EV manufacturers by 2025,” the Group stated in a press release.
0 Comments