Hyundai Motor said on the 27th that it signed a business agreement with the Korea Forest Service and "Tree Planet" to support forest damage restoration.
Tree Planet is a tree-planting social venture that carries out forest restoration projects for areas damaged by wildfires and landslides, school forest support projects, and seedling support projects.
Under the agreement, Hyundai Motor will work with the Korea Forest Service and Tree Planet over the next three years to restore forests, including creating new woodlands, focusing on areas in South Gyeongsang Province damaged by wildfires.
For the restoration, Hyundai Motor will use a special-purpose vehicle, the "IONIQ Drone Station," built on the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 9 for a smart forest ecosystem restoration project.
The vehicle can plant even in hard-to-reach areas through a drone control system, and its V2L (Vehicle to Load) function allows drone operation without external power.
Hyundai Motor will drop about 600 kilograms (50 million grains) of seed balls (eco-friendly seeds mixed with loess and shaped into balls) over wildfire-damaged areas such as Andong, Sancheong, and Uljin in South Gyeongsang Province using the IONIQ 9 Seed Ball Drone Station.
With the IONIQ 5 Monitoring Drone Station, it will carry out ▲ planting and monitoring of forest growth in wildfire-damaged areas ▲ datafication of tree growth ▲ measurement of carbon absorption, among other tasks.
Hyundai Motor also plans to cooperate on ▲ ICT-based forest management ▲ smart forest ecosystem restoration ▲ creation of nectar forests and coexistence with local communities ▲ global expansion of K-forest technology ▲ research and development in the forestry sector.
A Hyundai Motor official said, "We will work to build a sustainable forest ecosystem with a new forest restoration solution that combines advanced drone technology with eco-friendly vehicles, in line with the task of preventing large-scale wildfire damage."