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Hyundai Motor vows to prevail in Tesla-led EV price war
Hyundai Motor CEO Chang Jae-hoon speaks during an annual general meeting of shareholders at the company headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor
By Park Jae-hyuk
Hyundai Motor will reduce production costs for its electric vehicles (EVs) to counteract an ongoing price war sparked by Tesla in the global EV market, the Korean carmaker’s chief executive said Thursday.
The company also unveiled its plan to pursue the transition of all models into software-defined vehicles (SDVs). SDVs refer to cars that can manage their operations, add functionality and enable new features primarily or entirely through software.
During an annual general meeting of shareholders, Hyundai Motor CEO and President Chang Jae-hoon said the company will be more flexible and agile, in order to cope with uncertain business environments and worsening consumer sentiment.
“Triggered by the rival’s aggressive price reduction policy, competition has been intensified to secure cost competitiveness in the EV industry,” he told shareholders. “We will secure cost competitiveness through innovation in our manufacturing processes.”
His remarks came as the carmaker’s shareholders raised questions about a deceleration in global demand for EVs recently. In order to attract consumers, Tesla, Ford and Chinese carmakers such as BYD have made aggressive price cuts for their EVs.
The Hyundai Motor CEO emphasized that the company will overcome the current difficulties by strengthening its value chain in emerging markets.
“We are pushing ahead with the release of our electric SUV this year,” he added.
For the transition to SDVs, Hyundai Motor said it plans to integrate its R&D organizations by establishing a team in charge of advanced vehicle platforms.
“We will accelerate mass production of SDVs through a chip-to-factory strategy, which embraces the production of small components and large vehicles,” Chang said.
For its shareholders to learn about the company’s future mobility vision, Hyundai Motor displayed a miniature of an advanced air mobility, which is under development by the carmaker’s subsidiary, Supernal, at the meeting’s venue. An executive in charge of the air mobility business delivered a lecture on its strategies as well.
Hyundai Motor’s shareholders were also escorted by Spot, a four-legged robot developed by Boston Dynamics, a U.S. robotics firm which the Korean carmaker acquired in 2021.