• While Hyundai’s current EVs are derived from its Electric-Global Modular Platform (pictured above), “going forward” the Korean giant wants a new Integrated Modular Architecture, similar to GM’s one-platform Ultium strategy.
• “With the IMA development system, over 80 common modules can be utilized across different segments, irrespective of vehicle type, allowing for versatile combinations,” Hyundai says.
• These new vehicles will use both next-generation nickel-cobalt manganese batteries and lithium-ion phosphate batteries.

“Hyundai Motor Way” looks like competition for General Motors’ one-platform Ultium EV strategy, with a new Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA) replacing the Korean giant’s Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) “going forward.”

IMA “will be used on 13 new dedicated EV models from Hyundai Motor Group’s automotive brands Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis through 2030,” the automaker announced Tuesday in Seoul. Hyundai Motor, led by President and CEO Jaehoon Chang, chose its Investor Day presentation to describe its business plan, as many of its rivals have chosen to do following the Wall Street success of Tesla.

President and CEO Jaehoon Chang lays out the Hyundai Motor Way.
HYUNDAI
The Way has parallels with the Ultium battery-electric platform strategy that GM laid out in 2020 to reap the cost advantages of a single platform that can accommodate many body types and accept advanced battery updates.

“In the existing system, auto parts can only be shared among vehicles that share the same platform,” Hyundai says in its release. “However, with the IMA development system, over 80 common modules can be utilized across different segments, irrespective of vehicle type, allowing for versatile combinations.”

Hyundai Motor says the platform will entail “nearly all vehicle classes, ranging from small and large SUVs to pickup trucks, along with the flagship models of the Genesis brand.” These new vehicles will use both next-generation nickel-cobalt manganese batteries and lithium-ion phosphate batteries. LFP batteries are known for high safety performance, longer cycle life, and lower cost with no precious metals, according to smartpropel.com. Hyundai expects more than 10% profit margin for EVs by 2030.

Hyundai Motor Group has committed to investing KRW 35.8 trillion won ($27.8 billion US) in electric vehicles over the next decade, nearly one-third of its expected overall automotive investment. It plans to sell 2 million EVs a year globally by 2030. While the company did not break out US or North American numbers for the same period, it is well on its way to rapidly increasing the localization of EVs sold in the US market to 75% “rapidly.” Currently, it builds 0.7% of the EVs it sells here in North America.

An EV-dedicated factory under construction in Korea will begin mass production in 2025.

Compare this with Hyundai’s plans to increase local EV production in Europe from 7% to 54%, and in “other regions” from 2% to 16%. Chalk up the dramatic US production increase to the zero-emissions tax credit requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Much of the increase here will come after the second half of 2024, when Hyundai expects to start production at its EV battery and assembly facility under construction near Savannah, Georgia. Fully ramped up, the Georgia plant will have the capacity for 300,000 vehicles a year, equal to 15% of the number of EVs it plans to sell globally by 2030.

An EV-dedicated factory under construction in Korea will begin mass production in 2025 to serve both domestic and global demand for battery-electric cars and trucks. In the meantime, Hyundai says it currently builds EVs on mixed production lines for expediency and cost efficiencies.

Along with all this R&D on battery-electric technology, Hyundai Motor says it continues to press on as a “global leader in commercializing hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. Going forward, it aims to secure a new growth axis by building a hydrogen energy ecosystem at the Group level.”

Flying cars remain in the future. Hyundai continues to develop advanced air mobility (AAM), working with its in-house established Supernal based in Washington, DC, to develop full-scale technology for “planning pilot-ridden test flights and securing the infrastructure for airframe manufacturing.”

As for autonomous driving, Hyundai’s Ioniq 5-based driverless robot axis, operated with joint venture Motional, are scheduled to launch in Las Vegas late this year. Motional is conducting pilot services with Uber and Lyft and has an agreement with Uber to develop a robotaxi business across the US over the next 10 years.