Hydrogen champion Hyundai races to electric as Tesla
takes off
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[July 28, 2020] By
Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co
<005380.KS>, an early backer of hydrogen cars, has watched the electric
rise of Tesla, including on its home turf. Now's it's going on the
offensive in the battery-powered market led by its U.S. rival.
The South Korean company plans to introduce two production lines
dedicated to electrics vehicles (EVs), one next year and another in
2024, according to an internal union newsletter seen by Reuters.
Euisun Chung, leader of the Hyundai Motor Group conglomerate that also
includes Kia Motors, has also held a series of meetings since May with
his counterparts at Samsung, LG and SK Group, which make batteries and
electronic parts.
The purpose of the talks, which were publicly announced, was for Hyundai
to try to secure batteries at a time of tight supply as the race for EVs
intensifies, according to several industry sources. Those manufacturers
also supply the likes of Tesla <TSLA.O>, Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE> and GM <GM.N>.
Hyundai told Reuters it was collaborating with Korean battery suppliers
"to scale up" its electric car production efficiently. It declined to
comment on any plans to introduce dedicated production lines.
Samsung, LG and SK declined to comment.
The moves indicate the carmaker is moving aggressively to expand its
electric capacity, days after Chung announced on July 14 that Hyundai
Motor Group aimed to sell 1 million battery EVs a year and grab a global
market share of over 10% by 2025.
There's some way to go; Hyundai Motor Group sold 86,434 battery EVs last
year, according to data from industry consultant LMC Automotive. That
was above the 73,278 sold by Volkswagen Group but behind the 367,500
delivered by Tesla.
Hyundai, the world's No.5 automaker together with Kia Motors
<000270.KS>, said its agility allowed it to lead the charge into EVs.
"We are certain Hyundai is never going to fall behind," it added.
NO KODAK MOMENT
A senior Hyundai insider, who declined to be identified because of the
sensitivity of the issue, said the company had not been concerned about
Tesla when the Silicon Valley company was producing high-end cars.
But it became more worried when Tesla brought out a cheaper Model 3 in
2017, according to the insider who described it as a "strategic
victory".
No traditional automaker has been successful yet in catching up with
Tesla, which retains an edge in battery and software technology.
Hyundai could also face a roadblock from its powerful union, which is
worried about job security as EVs require fewer components and workers
than gasoline vehicles; at Hyundai, this is partly because the automaker
makes a number of key components for conventional cars in-house, while
many EV parts are outsourced at present.
The union is pushing for the company to assemble key EV components, like
battery packs and motors, in-house to offset any reduction in workforce.
"We are not opposed to EV business. Kodak went bankrupt because it stuck
to film even as the industry was shifting to digital photography," union
spokesman Kwon Oh-kook told Reuters.
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Hyundai Kona Electric is seen during the media day of the 41st
Bangkok International Motor Show after the Thai government eased
measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
in Bangkok, Thailand July 14, 2020. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo
"We just want to protect the jobs of our members," he said.
Hyundai said automakers and unions needed to accelerate change to remain
viable in the long term.
HYDROGEN V ELECTRIC
Back in 2010, Hyundai Motor Co made 230 electric cars for the
government, but they ended up being mothballed at a research center
outside Seoul due to a lack of charging infrastructure, according to Lee
Hyun-soon, R&D chief at the time.
In a 2014 book Lee, who developed South Korea's first gasoline engines,
said such electric vehicles were "not realistic", also citing high
battery costs, and that hydrogen cars - a rival clean technology -
offered a "bright" future.
Along with Toyota <7203.T> and Nikola <NKLA.O>, Hyundai was one of a few
automakers to have backed hydrogen cars. It launched the industry's
first mass-produced hydrogen car, Tucson Fuel Cell, in 2013 and the NEXO
in 2018.
However the technology has not taken off; 7,707 hydrogen fuel cell cars
were sold globally last year, compared with 1.68 million battery EVs,
according to LMC Automotive.
In Hyundai's home market, Tesla had its best month in June, with its
Model 3 beating Hyundai's Kona EV, as well as premium models from BMW
and Audi.
"Hyundai did not expect Tesla to dominate the EV market so quickly,"
another person familiar with the company's thinking told Reuters.
Hyundai Motor Co has a market capitalization of about 25.3 trillion won
($21.2 billion) - less than a tenth of that of Tesla, now the world's
most valuable automaker.
While Hyundai promotes its hydrogen cars with K-pop boyband BTS, it only
plans to introduce up to two hydrogen models by 2025, and 23
battery-powered models.
Peter Hasenkamp, vice president at electric startup Lucid, who
previously worked at Tesla and Ford, said established carmakers faced
historical "inertia" to make the EV transition.
"Part of the reason we're based in Silicon Valley is to leverage both
software and electrical engineering expertise," Hasenkamp told Reuters.
"You've got a couple of generations for the big car companies to learn
really how to do this well. It is a lot harder than they thought it
was."
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by
Heekyong Yang; Editing by Pravin Char)
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