As Hyundai Mobis accelerates its transition to an electrification-focused business model, it has established a new research center dedicated to electrification, enhancing its future competitiveness. In line with its “New Mobis” vision to become a ‘mobility platform provider’ revealed earlier this year, Hyundai Mobis is continuously strengthening its electrification business, which is a core area of future mobility.
Hyundai Mobis has established the “Electrification Research Center” within the Hyundai Motor Group’s Uiwang Research Institute in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, and held an inauguration ceremony. At the ceremony, the new CEO of Hyundai Mobis, Lee Kyu-seok, highlighted the company’s future growth direction centered around electrification.
The newly established Hyundai Mobis Electrification Research Center spans 4 underground floors and 5 above-ground floors and will serve as a comprehensive research center for the development of core components for electrification, including research and development, testing, performance evaluation, and quality analysis. The center covers a total area of 21,600 pyeong, and includes a main building, testing building, and quality analysis building.
To consolidate its R&D capabilities in the electrification sector that were previously dispersed across the Mabuk Research Institute in Yongin, Uiwang, and Seosan, Hyundai Mobis has established the Electrification Research Center to improve efficiency and proactively respond to the expanding global electrification market.
With the establishment of this specialized electrification research institute, Hyundai Mobis will now operate in a dual structure with the existing Mabuk Research Institute and Uiwang Research Institute in Korea. The Mabuk Research Institute will lead the development of core components such as autonomous driving, connectivity, and chassis safety, while the Uiwang Research Institute will specialize in the development, testing, and performance evaluation of electrification components. Hyundai Mobis additionally operates the Seosan Test Driving Center, where it applies R&D results to actual vehicles to evaluate performance and reliability.
At the inauguration ceremony, CEO Lee Kyu-seok emphasized, “The Electrification Research Center is a strategic hub for next-generation electrification technologies with an optimal research environment,” saying that the company will focus its core capabilities around expert researchers to utilize it as an innovation base in the field of electrification.
This year at CES, Hyundai Mobis announced its future strategy to leap forward as a ‘mobility platform provider’ providing software-centered integrated solutions. Electrification is a core business that materializes this strategy, and the opening of the Electrification Research Center is part of this initiative.
Recently, Hyundai Mobis successfully secured a large order for core electrification components from the major European automaker Volkswagen, which can be seen as recognition of the high production quality of Hyundai Mobis’s electrification products in the global market. With expectations for additional orders of electrification components from global automakers, the establishment of this next-generation electrification technology hub is significant. This transformation allows for the integration of R&D, quality, and production technology to improve organization and personnel efficiency, thereby maximizing production quality.
Hyundai Mobis plans to continuously expand its specialized research personnel following the establishment of the Electrification Research Center. It is anticipated that this research center will synergize the capabilities of outstanding personnel and an optimal research environment, establishing itself as a core research center for global electrification technology development.
Hyundai Mobis currently operates electrification production bases in nine locations worldwide (six in Korea and three abroad). Additionally, it is in the process of establishing six new electrification production bases in Korea, North America, and Indonesia. Recently, it successfully secured investment funds of $940 million to establish a new electrification base in North America for seven overseas financial institutions.
Hyundai Mobis intends to actively respond to the expanding global electrification market based on its core components portfolio in electrification fields such as Battery Systems (BSA), Power Electronics Systems (PE), and Power Conversion Systems. As of the third quarter of this year, Hyundai Mobis’s cumulative electrification revenue has reached 9.7941 trillion won, surpassing last year’s total electrification revenue. In the future, Hyundai Mobis plans to continue strengthening its competitiveness in the electrification business through the stable operation and expansion of local production bases, as well as securing next-generation technologies while actively pursuing global orders.
Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr