Kia Niro./photo courtesy=Kia
Hyundai Motor and Kia performed well in 2021 amid COVID-19. The global automotive semiconductor shock could not stop them from growing. The sluggish domestic sales were compensated by overseas sales, which led the earnings to grow. Hyundai managed to perform jaw-dropping performance in North America where it was once dubbed as the ‘latecomer’, for the first time leaving Honda behind. The secret to such growth can be found in the broadest strides of Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, who is in his third year in office. Under the leadership of Chairman Chung, who put forward the new concept of ‘meta mobility’, the Hyundai Motor Group is moving forward this year without pause.

Order of writing
1. Hyundai·Kia beat Honda in the US
2. The core of Chung Eui-sun’s future mobility strategy is ‘robots’
3. Hyundai Motor and Kia, getting stronger


Hyundai Motor and Kia are preparing next-generation vehicles to gain their influence further in the global electric vehicle market. During this year, it has been known that new cars with significantly improved performance, design and cutting-edge technologies will roll out.


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Compete through a new electric vehicles

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GV70 EV. / photo courtesy=Hyundai Motors
In the second half of this year, the IONIQ brand's first sedan and second dedicated electric vehicle, the IONIQ 6 will make a debut in the market. The Ioniq 6 is a mass-produced version of the concept car ‘Prophecy’, which was unveiled in March last year. New IONIQ 6 is in the range in Avante and Sonata, which have been on higher priority when Koreans buy cars. Meantime, automotive industry predicted that the interior would be spacious as it is an exclusive electric vehicle.

Based on the E-GMP-based platform for electric vehicles, the Ioniq 6 is equipped with a 73kWh battery and can count on 483 km on a single charge. A completely changed model of the compact electric SUV 'Kona EV' is also set to be for the sales.

Genesis will put forward an electrified model of the mid-size SUV GV70 in the first half of this year. This model is a derivative electric vehicle of the GV70 and can travel more than 400 km on a single charge. In boost mode, it produces a maximum output of 360kW and a maximum torque of 700Nm.

Acceleration from standstill to 100 km/h takes just 4.5 seconds. As the existing GV70 is gaining popularity due to its design and space utilization, the GV70 electrified model is also likely to bring forth attention from the luxury electric-minded SUV market.

Kia will launch the EV6 GT model, a high-performance version of the EV6 electric vehicle in the second half of 2022. The EV6 GT is equipped with a dual motor with a maximum output of 430kW and has a maximum output of 584 horsepower with a maximum torque of 740 Nm. Acceleration from standstill to 100 km/h requires only 3.5 seconds. The second-generation Niro electric vehicle and hybrid model will knowingly embark in the first quarter of this year.

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Hyundai and Kia are well-received in Europe

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EV Concept Car 'Prophecy'. / photo courtesy=Hyundai Motors
Hyundai Motor and Kia set their domestic and overseas sales targets for this year to 7,473,000 units, up 12.1% from the previous year. Chung Eui-sun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group said at the CES2022 held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on the 4th January (local time), “It is expected to grow by 5-8% this year (in the global market).”

Hyundai Motor Group's strategy is to make up for the setback, sustained in the Chinese market, by taking the lead in the European market, where it's presence is being more visible. The total sales in China from January to November last year were 490,000 units, down 20% from the previous year.

In the European market, Europeans are giving good response to its new cars. The Ioniq 5 was selected as the Best Car of the Year award in Germany and Auto Express's Best Car of the Year award, at the same time. Top Gear, a British automobile media outlet, chose Hyundai's European-only small hatchback i20n as its car of the year.

Hyundai Motor sold 468,045 units in Europe from January to November last year, up 26.6 percent year-on-year. A Hyundai Motor official said, "The customers' response to the launch of new cars such as the i20 and Tucson was good."

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Core parts and raw materials are variables

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Semiconductor supply shortages and rising raw material prices, especially commodities, are variables. The disruption of supply chain over global semiconductor, which hit hard the automobile market last year, is widely believed to continue this year.

Jang Hong-chang, a senior researcher at the Research Strategy Division at the Korea Automobile Research Institute, said “Currently automotive semiconductors are overbooked by about 20 to 30 percent of their production capacity this year. The overall semiconductor shortage can be solved, in my view, only in 2023”

The commodities have also significantly risen. Aluminum prices were $2,923/ton as of January 10, this year, up 46% from the previous year. During the same period, the price of magnesium jumped 250% to $8,128.

The same is true of battery materials, which account for 40% of the price of electric vehicles. According to the Korea Mineral Resources Corporation, lithium carbonate soared to 291 yuan/kg as of January 10, up 439% from the previous year. Lithium carbonate is a lithium compound processed to extract lithium, a raw material for electric vehicle batteries.

Along with lithium, cobalt and nickel, which are used in cathode materials, has seen the the prices going up. Cobalt prices surged 92% to $70,180/ton. while Nickel stands at $21,045, up 23%. They are known to represent 40% of the battery cost.