AI/robots and green energy, and strengthening status as a global mobility hub. Hyundai Motor Group's planned uses for the 125.2 trillion won it will invest over five years have come into focus. Closely tied to the auto industry, these are fields that will also greatly affect our future everyday life.
Hyundai Motor Group will carry out a record domestic investment of 125.2 trillion won over five years from 2026 to 2030. This exceeds the 89.1 trillion won invested domestically during the previous five years (2021–2025) by about 36.1 trillion won. Converting 125.2 trillion won into an average annual investment equals 25.04 trillion won, an increase of more than 40% compared with the previous five-year average annual investment of 17.8 trillion won.
Hyundai Motor Group's large-scale mid- to long-term domestic investment decision is aimed at securing the group's fundamental growth engines, and is expected to play a major role in boosting the national economy by strengthening Korea's status as a global mobility innovation hub, fostering the AI/robot industry and developing the green energy ecosystem.
Classifying the 125.2 trillion won investment by type, 50.5 trillion won will go to future new business areas such as AI, SDV (Software Defined Vehicle), electrification, robotics and hydrogen; 38.5 trillion won will be allocated to R&D investment to continuously strengthen competitiveness in existing mobility industries; and 36.2 trillion won will be allocated to capital expenditure.
Above all, this mid- to long-term investment focuses on contributing to the national economy by revitalizing regional economies through fostering the domestic AI/robot industry and developing the green energy ecosystem. Over the next five years, concentrated investment will be made in new businesses such as robotics based on AI technology advancement, and it is expected to contribute to creating a domestic AI/robot innovation ecosystem. Upgrading regional production hub lines for new car introductions, building new electric vehicle–only factories, and constructing a PEM water electrolysis plant in the southwest are also expected to play an important role in promoting balanced regional development.
To stabilize the domestic auto industry ecosystem, Hyundai Motor Group will expand win-win cooperation with suppliers, including fully covering the U.S. tariffs that Hyundai Motor and Kia first-tier suppliers bear this year.
At the same time, it will further solidify Korea's status as a central mobility production hub. Hyundai Motor Group plans to diversify export regions for domestically produced finished vehicles and nurture domestic electric vehicle–only factories as global mother factories and export bases to greatly increase overseas exports of domestically produced vehicles. It plans to increase finished vehicle exports from 2.18 million last year to 2.47 million in 2030, and expand exports of electrified vehicles (EV, PHEV, HEV, FCEV) from 690,000 last year to 1.76 million in 2030, more than 2.5 times.
▲AI data centers, robot factories, water electrolysis plants
Investment to foster the AI/robot industry for a domestic industrial paradigm shift will focus on building AI infrastructure and advanced value chains such as AI-powered robotics. Hyundai Motor Group recently announced plans to strengthen cooperation with NVIDIA and is focusing on advancing AI capabilities in areas such as in-vehicle AI, autonomous driving, smart factory and robotics.
First, it plans to build high-power 'AI data centers' to process the massive data needed to train and operate AI models. The AI data centers will secure petabyte-scale data storage capable of storing AI training data generated by physical AI robots and autonomous vehicles. It will also pursue establishment of the 'Hyundai Motor Group physical AI application center,' which will serve as the core of physical AI ecosystem development. The center is expected to be an innovative verification facility that validates the completeness and safety of robots trained on large-scale behavioral data and provides final reliability verification before actual field deployment.
Based on customer-tailored robot technology secured by using physical AI, Hyundai Motor Group will also create 'robot finished-product manufacturing and foundry factories.' This will expand the business scope from producing its own robot products to foundry production that manufactures products for small and medium-sized enterprises lacking manufacturing know-how. At the same time, it will actively support R&D of robot parts by existing auto parts suppliers. By accelerating suppliers' entry into the robot business, the goal is to induce a domestic industrial paradigm shift through localization of key parts and exports of high value-added products.
To develop the green energy ecosystem, it will also invest in developing electrolyzers for green hydrogen production. Hyundai Motor Group will build a 1 GW PEM water electrolysis plant in the southwest, where renewable energy is abundant, and plans to build nearby hydrogen shipping centers and refueling stations as infrastructure. It will also build manufacturing facilities for PEM electrolyzers and hydrogen fuel cell parts to foster them as global export industries to achieve an early domestic transition to a hydrogen economy.
It will actively consider investments to create hydrogen AI new cities that integrate Hyundai Motor Group's core new technologies such as AI, hydrogen and V2X in consultation with the government and local governments. By actively expanding investments in each region, it will promote regional economic revitalization and work to establish the foundation for the sustained growth and development of Korea and the mobility industry.
Hyundai Motor Group operates finished vehicle and parts plants in the southeast region (Ulsan, Changwon), southwest region (Gwangju, Jeonju), central region (Asan, Jincheon, Seosan, Chungju, Cheonan), Daegu–Gyeongbuk region (Daegu, Gyeongju, Gimcheon), and Gyeonggi region (Hwaseong, Gwangmyeong, Pyeongtaek), and will continue investing in line upgrades over the next five years to introduce dozens of new models.
New factories will also be built. Hyundai Motor's Ulsan EV-only plant will be completed next year, and a new Ulsan hydrogen fuel cell plant is under construction with a 2027 target for operation. Kia is accelerating the establishment of a new PBV-dedicated electric vehicle hub in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Hyundai Steel is pursuing construction of an LNG self-generation plant at its Dangjin steelworks in Chungnam and will invest hundreds of billions of won in blast furnace efficiency improvements. Hyundai Engineering will expand installation of infrastructure such as charging stations nationwide to eliminate EV charging blind spots.
▲ R&D and new domestic electric vehicle–only factories
Looking at Hyundai Motor Group's investments by sector, from 2026 to 2030 it will execute 50.5 trillion won in new business investment, 38.5 trillion won in R&D investment and 36.2 trillion won in capital expenditure domestically.
New business investment will be made to enhance competitiveness in future new businesses. The plan is to solidify a sustainable growth foundation by making strategic investments in advanced fields that will determine future industries, such as AI autonomous driving, AI autonomous manufacturing, AI robotics, electrification and SDV, and hydrogen energy.
AI autonomous driving is a technology in which AI perceives the vehicle's surroundings based on sensor data and makes real-time driving decisions. Hyundai Motor Group is developing autonomous driving technology with the end-to-end deep learning model 'Atria AI' and is accelerating implementation of this technology with 42dot and autonomous driving joint venture Motional. It is also focusing on developing future AI autonomous manufacturing technology that minimizes human intervention by integrating AI with robots and digital twin technology so AI can operate and optimize production processes on its own.
It is also accelerating the shift to SDV, having recently announced the mobility software technology platform 'Pleos.' In the second half of 2026 it will unveil an 'SDV pace car (test vehicle)' applying a centralized electrical and electronic architecture that organically integrates vehicle hardware and software, and after technical verification will seek to expand application to mass-produced vehicles.
Hyundai Motor Group will continue to strengthen electrification capabilities, accelerate diversification of powertrains and lineups including EREV (Extended Range Electrified Vehicle) with driving ranges of more than 900 km, and intensify investments to internalize battery technology to greatly improve battery product competitiveness and safety by enhancing design and development capabilities for various batteries.
While further solidifying global leadership in existing hydrogen electric vehicle areas such as mass production of next-generation hydrogen fuel cell systems and development of hydrogen buses and trucks, it will also accelerate hydrogen energy business initiatives to build an ecosystem across the entire value chain for early realization of a hydrogen society, including hydrogen production, supply, storage and utilization through group companies across various business sectors.
R&D investment will be used to continuously strengthen mobility industry competitiveness and secure development of new products and core field technologies to flexibly respond to the global market environment. Hyundai Motor Group is focusing on developing rear-wheel-based hybrid systems and is actively pursuing regionally tailored vehicles and technology strategies that reflect local consumer needs and conditions in major global markets, centered on the Namyang Research Center.
Capital expenditure will be used to streamline domestic production facilities, promote manufacturing technology innovation and expand customer service bases to prepare for future changes in the manufacturing environment. Hyundai Motor Group's Global Business Complex (GBC) will begin full-scale construction once Seoul's permits are completed. Expected to be a global innovation hub and a landmark representing Korea, the GBC is projected to generate large ripple effects such as revitalizing commercial districts during construction and after completion.
Hyundai Motor Group's large domestic investment is analyzed to upgrade related domestic industries and accelerate the rapid transition of related industries to a future mobility ecosystem. It is also expected to contribute to boosting the national economy by enabling Korea to leap forward as a future mobility innovation hub.
Hyundai Motor Group will retroactively cover the full amount of U.S. tariffs that Hyundai Motor and Kia first-tier suppliers actually bear this year (2025). Separately, it will prepare various win-win cooperation programs to expand benefits not only to first-tier but also to second- and third-tier suppliers.
Hyundai Motor Group plans to support suppliers' tariffs by reflecting in purchase prices the tariffs that first-tier suppliers who directly transact with Hyundai Motor and Kia actually pay when supplying parts to Hyundai Motor Group's U.S. production subsidiaries (HMGMA, Hyundai Motor Alabama plant, Kia Georgia plant, etc.). The total support amount will be finalized after compiling the export performance of first-tier suppliers.
Hyundai Motor Group will develop new support programs and expand support amounts to strengthen the global competitiveness of suppliers and stabilize the domestic auto industry ecosystem, covering not only first-tier suppliers but also some 5,000 second- and third-tier small and medium suppliers that do not transact directly. To stabilize the domestic auto industry supply chain, it will support suppliers' raw material purchases, working capital procurement and interest payments, and promote various global competitiveness programs to open overseas channels and expand exports.
Hyundai Motor Group will also actively support suppliers to accelerate new investment and research and development (R&D) in future mobility parts, adoption of smart factories, and establishment of safety and security management systems so as to promote sustainable shared growth.
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