Hyundai Motor Group’s executive vice chairman, Chung Euisun (C), and employees taking selfies with the carmaker’s heir apparent after a town hall meeting at its headquarters in Yangjae, southern Seoul on Oct. 22, 2019. (image: Hyundai Motor Group)
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Group will morph into a future mobility solutions provider as many carmakers are expected to disappear amid oversupply and rapidly changing appetites for vehicles, the group’s heir apparent said Tuesday.
In a town hall meeting with 1,200 executives and employees at the group’s headquarters in southern Seoul, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun said the group will remain an automobile manufacturer but will focus on becoming a future mobility solutions provider in addition.
“Carmakers are competing in oversupplied global markets and many of them will disappear over time. In the future, traditional vehicles are likely to account for 50 percent (of the market), with private air vehicles and robotics taking up 30 percent and 20 percent, respectively,” he said.
He estimated there is an oversupply of about 25 million vehicles across the world.
To cope with rapid changes in the automobile industry, the group’s core affiliates such as Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp. and parts maker Hyundai Mobis Co. will help the group emerge as future mobility services company, Chung said.
The executive also held town hall meetings with employees in March and May.
Last month, Hyundai Motor appointed an aeronautics expert, 61-year-old Shin Jai-won, as executive vice president and head of its newly established urban air mobility division.
He formerly served at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Hyundai expects his expertise in revolutionary airframes, engines, aviation safety and air traffic management technologies to help the company take a lead in the fast-growing urban air mobility sector.
The new business unit will develop core technologies and innovative solutions for safe and efficient airborne travel.
(Yonhap)
