Hyundai Motor and Kia will establish the group's first large-scale battery development hub to strengthen next-generation electrification competitiveness.
Hyundai Motor and Kia said on the 28th that they held a "Future mobility battery Anseong campus topping-out ceremony" at the Anseong City General Industrial Complex No. 5 in Gyeonggi Province and will begin full-scale construction of battery research and development (R&D) infrastructure.
The battery campus is the group's first large-scale battery-specialized research and development base that comprehensively verifies battery design and process technologies developed by Hyundai Motor and Kia in a high-difficulty validation environment that precisely reflects vehicle requirements. It will cover a site of about 197,000 square meters (about 60,000 pyeong) with a total floor area of about 111,000 square meters, with completion targeted for the end of next year.
The total amount Hyundai Motor and Kia are investing here is 1.2 trillion won. Building the battery campus is the third large-scale domestic investment project following the Ulsan Hydrogen Fuel Cell plant and Kia's purpose-built vehicle (PBV) dedicated plant in Hwaseong, and is the first case of concretizing in the electrification and battery R&D field the 125.2 trillion won domestic investment strategy that Hyundai Motor Group released.
Hyundai Motor and Kia will equip the battery campus with advanced facilities capable of performing all cell manufacturing processes, including electrode, assembly, and formation, and will organically and repeatedly verify, within a single test bed, the applicability, quality, and safety of innovative battery technologies. Through this, they plan to secure not only cell design technologies but also process technologies and integrated control technologies linked with vehicle systems, and to internalize an R&D system that comprehensively verifies battery performance and safety from a full life-cycle perspective spanning materials, cells, modules, packs, and vehicles.
Until now, Hyundai Motor and Kia have conducted advanced research on battery materials, cell design, and process technologies at the Namyang and Uiwang research centers. Existing research centers verify initial designs and unit processes for cells and processes, while the battery campus will take on the role of continuously and comprehensively verifying and advancing the level of quality and safety suitable for installation in actual vehicles.
Furthermore, Hyundai Motor and Kia decided to actively apply data interpretation technologies, test automation, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based predictive models throughout the R&D process. Through this, they also plan to build a digital verification system that precisely predicts battery performance and safety in advance. They intend to systematically strengthen electrification competitiveness by developing batteries optimized for the characteristics of electric vehicles and improving quality and reliability through big data analysis linking battery cells and vehicles.
At the battery campus, Hyundai Motor and Kia will focus on research into high-performance lithium-ion battery cells to be installed in next-generation electrified vehicles such as electric vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs). They plan to expand the scope of R&D to various formats and materials in line with market and technology trends. Based on the know-how accumulated through the development of vehicle batteries, they also decided to strengthen their technology response capabilities across future new businesses such as Robotics and advanced air mobility (AAM).
Yang Hee-won, president and head of R&D at Hyundai Motor and Kia, said, "The battery campus will be a starting point that organically links the domestic battery ecosystem to promote cross-industry collaboration and technological advancement," adding, "I am confident it will become a key driver that strengthens national competitiveness beyond the level of corporations and leads the global electrification market."
Meanwhile, in Aug., Hyundai Motor and Kia signed a business agreement with LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, and SK On, the three domestic battery companies, to strengthen electric vehicle battery safety technologies, and are expanding cooperation with the K-battery ecosystem by jointly pursuing key collaborative projects to advance battery, quality, and safety technologies.