Tag: Hyundai

Huh Sung-moo (L), mayor of the southeastern city of Changwon, poses with a Hyundai Motor official during a ceremony to hand over the carmaker’s Nexo hydro-electric car at the city hall on Oct. 10, 2018, in this photo provided by the city. The city decided to use Hyundai’s hydro-electric cars as its official cars. (Yonhap)

Considering that Hyundai was used to help pay the original $500 million bribe to the Kim regime to secure the first Inter-Korean summit, I can understand why North Korea has fond memories of working with the former chairman Chong Mong-hun:

A North Korean media outlet reported in detail on a South Korean firm’s devotion to inter-Korean cooperation Friday, apparently trying to create a favorable mood for resumption of the company’s now suspended tour program.

Uriminjokkiri, the North’s external propaganda website, shed light on Hyundai Group’s work and its relations with Pyongyang in time for a trip by group officials to Mount Kumgang to attend a memorial service for late chairman Chung Mong-hun.

Chung spearheaded the now suspended tour program to the North Korean mountain. His wife and current chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun was among the visitors.

The ceremony was attended by some 20 North Korean officials and 30 Hyundai officials, according to the company.

“We have expectations to resume the tour program within this year. That’s what the North was thinking too,” Hyun told reporters after her visit.

Yet the chairwoman said she did not have detailed discussions on the possible resumption of inter-Korean projects with the North Korean officials.

During a meeting with Hyun in 2005, the website said that the North’s then leader Kim Jong-il delivered condolences for the death of Chung, emphasizing that the North began its “first love” with Hyundai in terms of improving inter-Korean relations way ahead of its cooperation with the Seoul government.

Kim also praised Chung for his devotion to advancing relations between the two Koreas, calling him a “patriotic business person” who followed in the footsteps of his late father and group founder, Chung Ju-yung, according to the website.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but for those that don’t remember Chong Mong-hun committed suicide back in 2003 by jumping off of a building after he was indicted for his role in paying the bribe to North Korea.

Shown is the photo of the Genesis Essentia, a luxury grand touring electric vehicle from Genesis, provided by Hyundai Motor Group on May 28, 2018. The concept car was dislayed at the Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa d’Este exhibition in Lake Como, Italy, on May 26-27. (Yonhap)

Hyundai Motor Co.’s new hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle NEXO, featured in this photo from the company on March 16, 2018, will go on preorder from March 19. The automaker plans to export the vehicle overseas within this year, aiming to sell 10,000 units globally by 2022. (Yonhap)

Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co.’s factory in Ulsan, 414 km southeast of Seoul, stage a partial strike calling for higher wages and bonuses on Dec. 5, 2017. Earlier in the day, the carmaker’s 51,000-member union declared a strike for four to six hours from Dec. 5-8 at five plants in the city. (Yonhap)

This is probably a good decision because I can’t remember the last time I remember seeing a Grandeur on the road in the US:

Hyundai Motor Co. is considering suspending the sales of the Grandeur sedan, exported under the name Azera, in the United States, industry sources said Sunday, due to its sluggish sales there.

While Hyundai announced the launch of the sixth-generation Grandeur earlier in November, sources said the company would not introduce the model in the U.S. If South Korea’s top automaker makes that decision, it would mark the first time in 16 years for the Azera to leave the U.S. market.

Industry watchers said although the Grandeur stands as a major high-end sedan in the South Korean market, it failed to grab enough attention in the North American market, losing out to the popular Sonata and the premium Genesis models.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

South Korea due to its small size seems like an ideal location for the use of eco-friendly and driverless cars. It will be interesting to see how this technology develops over the next few years:

President Park Geun-hye pledged Friday to support the development of self-driving cars to ensure local carmakers won’t lag behind their global competitors.

Park said South Korea can compete with Google and other foreign rivals in developing driverless cars and eco-friendly vehicles, including electric cars, citing the technological prowess of local carmakers and information and technology companies.

South Korea is the world’s fifth-largest automobile producer and is home to Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate, Kia Motors Corp., the two flagship units of Hyundai Motor Group.

“I think our carmakers won’t lag behind global competition and (will instead) stay ahead of it,” Park said at Hyundai’s assembly plant in Asan, about 100 kilometers south of Seoul. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It is going to be interesting to see if the hydrogen fuel cell cars ever catch on because right now I don’t see how someone can buy one when there are so few fueling stations:

Hyundai Motor Co. said Monday it believes hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the future for eco-friendly cars despite challenges of limited infrastructure and slow sales.

South Korea’s largest automaker has sold or leased 273 Tucson fuel cell SUVs since beginning production in 2013, lower than its 1,000 target, mostly in Europe and California.

Kim Sae Hoon, general manager at Hyundai’s fuel cell engineering design team, said fuel cell cars represent a bigger opportunity than electric cars because competition is less fierce. Hydrogen-powered cars also give more flexibility to designers, he said. They can be scaled to big vehicles such as buses as well as small cars.

They can also be refueled as quickly as gasoline cars while traveling more miles than electric vehicles. The Tucson’s Europe model, called ix35 Fuel Cell, can travel up to 594 kilometers (369 miles) while its U.S. model travels up to 265 miles (426 kilometers) on one charge. It emits water vapor and no greenhouse gases.

High prices and the dearth of fueling stations are barriers to sales of fuel cell vehicles. Hyundai said it will be another 10 years before hydrogen cars start gaining wider acceptance. In the meantime, sales of eco-friendly cars are dominated by hybrid models such as Toyota’s Prius and electric vehicles such as Nissan’s Leaf, which are more affordable than fuel cell cars.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link.

Hyundai is thinking big with the construction of what they hope will be a landmark building in Korea:

Hyundai Motor Group began negotiations with the Seoul city government over the construction of a 115-story headquarters at the Samseong-dong plot in Gangnam it purchased from Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) for 10.55 trillion won ($9.6 billion) last September.

According to the city government Sunday, Hyundai Motor has submitted a plan to build the highest building in the country at 571 meters (1,873 feet), 16 meters higher than the Lotte World Tower.

Currently, the country’s highest skyscraper is the North East Asia Trade Tower in Songdo, Incheon, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

That building, which was finished last July, has 68 floors and is 305-meters high. Offices occupy the first 35 floors, and the remaining floors are used as a hotel and for restaurants.

The world’s fifth-largest automaker said it wants to build a landmark dubbed the Global Business Center at the Kepco site in Gangnam when it purchased the land last year.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.