On the 1st, Hyundai Motor·Kia Namyang Research and Development Center in Namyang-eup, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Established in 1995 and marking its 31st year this year, the core change at the Namyang center was "efficiency." Across the R&D process for vehicles, the lab was working to cut expense and time by using advanced technology such as checking performance in virtual space and managing quality with data. For security, mobile phones were placed in plastic pouches, and the process was observed with the naked eye.
The first stop that day was the driving simulator studio, completed in February. A black vehicle with only a driver's seat was moving left and right in front of a 270-degree large screen. As the vehicle accelerated, the scenery on the screen rushed by. When the vehicle cornered left, it tilted slightly left as well, and when the driver stopped the car, momentum pushed forward a bit. Various data were transmitted in real time to eight external monitors according to the vehicle's movements.
The simulator is a device that creates a virtual environment and provides driver-based evaluations. Instead of building and driving a prototype before developing a new mass-production vehicle, it virtually recreates real roads and vehicles to validate various performances. Jeong Pil-young, Head of the driving performance development team, cited "efficient decision-making" as the reason for developing this system. It took a little over two months just to build and validate a prototype, but this equipment has cut that to three days.
Software developed directly by Hyundai Motor·Kia is installed in this simulator. The road the vehicle drives on is the Namyang center track. Researchers said they scanned slopes, bumps, speed bumps, and even asphalt granules with lidar. The goal is to reproduce not just the feel of steering but also the ride comfort at the same time. Jeong said, "The Namyang center track had to reproduce roads from all over the world," adding, "We evaluate vehicle performance based on this kind of high-precision map."
Hyundai Motor·Kia has used this device in vehicle development since 2019. All mass-production models released since 2020 have gone through this simulator. In particular, because it reproduces rotational motions such as roll and pitch, it has been used to develop high-performance models like Hyundai N and Genesis Magma. The company plans to use it for developing advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) as well.
The Digital Measurement Center (DMC) was also a space for efficient vehicle development. It measures and manages the quality of vehicles before mass production. Entering the moving dynamic verification area on the third floor of DMC, a midsize sport utility vehicle (SUV) and equipment such as a high-speed camera stood out. The vehicle, which appeared to be the midsize SUV Santa Fe, had about 20 markers on its door, and a high-speed camera was filming them.
When a worker closed the car door, different colors appeared depending on the pressure applied to the door. The handle area, where the strongest force is applied when closing the door, showed red, while the seam, which receives less pressure, showed blue, and the amount of component movement was displayed in millimeters. This scene checks the degree of deformation when force is applied to parts attached to the development vehicle. It prevents defects by checking in advance the minute movements of parts that occur during assembly or testing.
In the integrated complete-vehicle measurement room on the first floor, when a worker scanned the front of a Sportage with a portable three-dimensional (3D) scanner, the front shape appeared in green on the monitor next to it. That means it was made properly without defects. Areas that protrude or have gaps are shown in red. The data obtained are compared with the design data to check for deviations. It is used to immediately identify defective areas and suggest directions for improvement.
Han Jin-su, Head of Team for the pilot quality verification team, said, "If a defect is found at the complete-vehicle stage, it used to be difficult to determine at which stage the problem occurred," adding, "With data from every stage and quality managed by data even for invisible areas, rapid analysis is possible." Hyundai Motor·Kia plans to continue vehicle development by building a server that aggregates such data.
On the fourth floor of the same building is the Additive Manufacturing Solution Center (AMSC). Additive manufacturing refers to using 3D printing technology. Thirty years after Hyundai Motor·Kia introduced 3D printers in 1996, it built a new space. The facility includes a polymer photopolymerization cell that cures liquid resin to make parts and WAAM, which stacks by melting metal wire.
Among them, the metal powder bed fusion equipment, which melts and stacks metal powder with lasers, was already being used at the mass-production stage. Six lasers melt powder to form a shape, then powder is spread over it again to build the shape in an additive process. It mainly makes parts that cannot be produced by casting or pressing. In 2024, the Namyang center used this equipment to produce engine intake parts for discontinued Mohave and Veloster models and supplied them to consumers.
The last place visited was the NOVA Lab. It was a space preparing for software-defined vehicles (SDV) through a next-generation open controller verification system. It verifies not only ADAS but also high-performance computer-based control capabilities and vehicle communication systems. Through this space, they said they detected an average of 150 to 200 issues before developing a new model.
Kim Sang-yeon, section chief of the pilot electrical control development team, said, "Before a test car is built, this is the first stage where the entire vehicle system is connected in physical form to verify functions and communications," adding, "Before building a real vehicle, we identify and fix communication status or conflicts between controllers in advance to improve the completeness of SDVs." A Hyundai Motor Group official said, "We will transform the way we develop vehicles with digital, innovation-focused research and development technology."