Eugene Investment & Securities on the 21st said Hyundai Motor is expected to speed up its business-structure shift by turning vehicles into software-centric products and expanding its robot business. It maintained a "Buy (BUY)" recommendation and raised the target price to 1 million won from 600,000 won. Hyundai Motor's previous session closing price was 527,000 won.
Lee Jae-il, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities, said, "Hyundai Motor, based on the competitiveness of its existing finished-car business, is transforming its DNA into a mobility technology corporations through a shift to software-defined vehicles (SDV), which turn cars into software-centered products, and mass production of Humanoid Robot," adding, "We believe a valuation re-rating to the level of a mobility tech corporations is possible in the mid to long term."
Hyundai Motor is expected to unveil its SDV-dedicated concept, the "PACE car," in the third quarter this year and begin mass production in 2027. It then aims to apply SDV to all models in 2028. To that end, it plans to introduce its in-house vehicle operating system, Pleos OS, and the CODA E/E architecture for vehicle electronics to create new revenue models such as software updates and subscription features.
The robot business is also expected to pick up in the second half. Hyundai Motor will launch the Robot Meta Plant Application Center (RMAC), a proof-of-concept project to deploy Humanoid Robot in its factories. Through this, it will verify production-line automation and expand robot utilization going forward. The analyst said, "We look forward to the results of combining Hyundai Motor's manufacturing capabilities with Boston Dynamics' hardware technology and the artificial intelligence (AI) technologies of Nvidia and DeepMind."
Results are also expected to show steady growth. Eugene Investment & Securities forecast Hyundai Motor's sales at 189 trillion won and operating profit at 13 trillion won this year. That would be up 1.6% and 14.1%, respectively, from a year earlier. Despite geopolitical risks in the Middle East, it said earnings could improve as sales remain centered on high-margin hybrid vehicles and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).