Hyundai Motor Company recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new electric vehicle (EV) plant at its complex in Ulsan, the heart of Korea’s automotive industry. Through the establishment of a dedicated EV plant, Hyundai Motor pays homage to its Founding Chairman and sets the scene for future expansion during this era of electrification.
The new EV-dedicated plant will be a human-centered facility with an innovative manufacturing platform that delivers an optimal working environment for employees. It will also be the hub for Hyundai Motor’s mobility production in the era of electrification. With the new plant, Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan Plant complex will become a base for future mobility production.
At the new plant, Hyundai Motor will actively advance its 56-year brand heritage, automotive business know-how, and technological capabilities and will continue to innovate for the benefit of humanity in the era of vehicle electrification based on people-centered humanism.
“The new EV-dedicated plant in Ulsan is the beginning of a promising future for the next 50 years and the era of electrification. I am honored to share our dream of a 100-year company here,” said Euisun Chung, executive chair of Hyundai Motor Group. “Just as the dream of building the best car in the past made Ulsan an automotive city today, I trust Ulsan will be an innovative mobility city that leads the way in the era of electrification, starting with a dedicated EV plant.”
“It is undeniable that Hyundai Motor Company has played the biggest role in the growth of Ulsan,” said Ulsan Metropolitan City Mayor Doo-gyeom Kim. “We will continue to do our best to draw a new future together in line with the changes in the global automotive industry.”
New EV plant reflects ambition to provide a better life and deliver sustainable mobility
The new EV plant in Ulsan builds on the vision of Hyundai Motor’s Founding Chairman Ju-yung Chung (1915-2001), who believed the car industry would become the cornerstone of the Korean economy and underpin the country’s industrial development. More than half a century ago, he chose Ulsan as the location to help create a better outlook and realize Korea’s mobility dreams. Now, the new EV plant will build on that legacy with a global impact.
“We have the world’s greatest strength, and that strength is the world’s best craftsmen. I am confident that thanks to their ability and dedication, Korean cars, our cars, will soon take the world by storm.” the Founding Chairman said historically.
His famous quote was reproduced through artificial intelligence (AI) technology and shared at the groundbreaking ceremony, demonstrating the humanistic spirit of Hyundai Motor and representing the long-held dream of its employees to become a global automotive powerhouse.
Beginning as an assembly plant in 1968, Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan Plant grew by leaps and bounds in an incredibly short time. The mass production of Hyundai Motor’s first unique model, the Pony, in 1975 demonstrated the unrelenting determination and incredible drive of the company’s employees to realize South Korea’s first independently developed automobile. They achieved this despite the harsh domestic environment and skepticism, driven by a grand dream of introducing Korean cars to the global market.
The Pony’s mass production was also a catalyst for technological independence, leading to the localization of automotive parts production where the company had previously been reliant on overseas markets. It also led to the development of domestic automobile production technology.
In addition, Honorary Chairman Mong-Koo Chung’s prioritization of quality management became the source of Hyundai Motor’s transformation into a global brand that could leave its mark on the global automotive industry beyond South Korea.
More than half a century later, the Hyundai Ulsan Plant is now the largest single plant in the world, the center of the company’s finished vehicle production, and the birthplace of the Korean automotive industry.
EV plant to supercharge next-generation mobility
Hyundai Motor’s new EV-dedicated plant in Ulsan will form part of a 548,000 m2 site with a capacity to produce 200,000 EVs per year. Approximately KRW 2 trillion ($1.53 billion) will be invested in the project, with full-scale construction set to begin in the fourth quarter of this year. The construction is scheduled to be completed in 2025, and vehicle mass production will commence in the first quarter of 2026. An electric SUV from the Hyundai Motor Group luxury brand, Genesis, will be the first model to be produced at the new plant.
The dedicated EV plant in Ulsan will be located on the site of Hyundai Motor’s former proving ground, a place where the company looked to the future and shaped innovation.
New plant to feature an innovative manufacturing platform and eco-friendly environment
Hyundai Motor plans to apply an innovative manufacturing platform that was developed by the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS) at its dedicated EV plant in Ulsan to future-proof the facility and prioritize employee safety, convenience, and efficiency.
HMGICS’ manufacturing innovation platform includes demand-driven, AI-based intelligent control systems; eco-friendly, low-carbon construction methods to achieve carbon neutrality and RE100 certification (100 percent renewable energy use); and human-friendly facilities that enable safe, efficient working.
Hyundai Motor will use this to build a smart logistics system, including automated parts logistics, at the new EV plant. It will introduce a flexible production system to diversify vehicle models, respond to global market changes, and automate assembly facilities to improve productivity and quality.
The company plans to create a safer, more accurate, and more efficient workplace with innovative technologies, such as robotics, smart logistics systems, and AI to improve the working environment. A nature-friendly space design, breaking away from the closed image that comes to mind when thinking of a conventional plant, will help realize the next-generation manufacturing philosophy as a cradle of eco-friendly future mobility production.
The new EV-dedicated plant will feature a nature-friendly design to reduce worker fatigue and encourage interaction with each other, a departure from the dreary factory environment of heavy machinery.
Natural light will be maximized inside the factory so that workers can feel the warmth of the sun, and the group lounge, which will be used as a rest and office space, will be organized in an open format so that people can gather naturally.
In addition, the plant’s Central Park, which brings the nature of Ulsan into the facility, is expected to become a rest area and a hub connecting each building. Solar power panels and upcycled concrete panels will be applied to the building façade, making it a sustainable plant that minimizes carbon emissions.