Hyundai Motor Company is not only the 2nd largest carmaker in India but also one of the largest brands in the global market. Starting its journey in 1967 from the Republic of South Korea, the brand of course has fairly humble beginnings, but today Hyundai is known for its quality cars, Innovation and Technology.
The brand has been a forerunner in the automobile industry in terms of innovations and coming up with new cutting-edge technology and design language, which can be seen on some of its models like the award-winning Ioniq series and top-end cars like the Santa Fe and Palisade or concept cars like the 2023 Pony Coupe Concept or the 2022 N Vision 74.
Hyundai is More Than Just a Car Manufacturer
Today’s Hyundai family is popular for its Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands but the future Hyundai might just make its name popular for autonomous driving, robotics or even flying cars (A dream for Sci-fi fans) and we are not saying this entirely as a random hunch. See, the brand has a plan and according to that, the company intends to innovate its way away from the ICE vehicle engines it’s very popular for and provide a “smart mobility solution provider”.
This is not an easy task and definitely not one you can just accomplish in just a few months. This kind of innovation takes long-term planning and Hyundai is aware of this. The company has outlined a 10-year investment plan to go electric and develop multiple businesses which will help sustain the huge costs. Hyundai plans to invest $85 billion over 10 years and about $27 billion is allocated for electrification.
Software is also another element Hyundai has put a lot of effort into and this can be seen even in their mass-market vehicles like the Creta. Hyundai has updated its software-defined vehicle (SDV) strategy and has plans to produce an app ecosystem and an open OS that will help them with active autonomous driving, quick and easy updates and more. For this, the brand plans to use the 42dot (backed by Hyundai) startup as its global software base. Now this startup has started developing its own software platform called Titan which will validate the platform by 2026 to launch an autonomous driving purpose built vehicle (PVB) business after 2027.
Speaking of PBVs, the brand aims to launch a dedicated PBV model with a skateboard platform in 2025 to fit the purpose of human and object mobility.
Other than that, Hyundai also plans to dive into robotics. It acquired Boston Dynamics in 2021 and has built its Robotics lab. Not only that, the brand also plans to use Hydrogen including biogas and waste-plastic-based Hydrogen to run its EV production facilities.
Let’s go higher than the normal on-road cars because Hyundai is also doing so by speeding up the development of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) air vehicles to extend mobility to the sky. What it actually refers to is urban air mobility (UAM) that maximizes movement efficiency by allowing vertical take-off and landing like what you see in those fiction films like Avatar and Avengers where the planes don’t need those long runways and can just fly off vertically. The brand claims this to be a very effective solution to tackle extreme traffic congestion in big cities. Now, UAM utilizes a technology called “Distribution Electric Propulsion” which drives the rotors independently, making UAM less noisy and safer than conventional helicopters.
But here comes the interesting part. Hyundai Motor Group has already revealed the S-A1, a UAM vision concept model which has 8 rotors equipped with DEP, making it capable of verticle take-off and landing (Now that is cool). It can carry up to 5 people with a top speed of 290 km/h.
You might be wondering why I didn’t cover the design philosophy aspect of Hyundai since that is one innovation for which the brand is famous and even won multiple awards. Well, Hyundai’s innovation in terms of design language is vast and needs a separate article to cover, which I have already done and you can read it by clicking on the highlighted part.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the latest innovations of Hyundai?
Hyundai has been working on a variety of innovations in the fields of Autonomous Driving, Robotics, AI software and Electrification.
What is Hyundai doing for the environment?
Hyundai plans to go fully electric and make their manufacturing operations Hydrogen-powered, becoming sustainable in the long run.
Is Hyundai made by Toyota?
No, Hyundai is a separate brand of Korean origin that is owned by the Hyundai Motor Group.
What is Unique about Hyundai?
What makes Hyundai are its technological and design innovations.
