Hyundai to invest US$8.5 in 2023 to strengthen operations

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Hyundai Motor Company announced plans to invest KRW10.5trn (US$8.5bn) this year mainly to strengthen its presence in the electric vehicle (EV) market and other eco-friendly vehicle segments, as the company continues to target key growth areas of the global vehicle market.

This included KRW5.6trn of capital expenditure, KRW4.2trn for research and development and KRW700bn for strategic investments. The announcement came as the company reported upbeat financial results for 2022 with revenue rising 24% to KRW38.5trn and operating profit more than doubling to KRW3.36trn as the company rebounded strongly from the pandemic.

On a consolidated basis, revenue rose 21% to a record KRW142.5trn last year from KRW117.6trn in 2021, driven by strong demand for upmarket Genesis models and SUVs, as well as favourable exchange rates.

The automaker said it expected consolidated revenue to rise by around 12% in 2023, to generate a consolidated operating margin of 6.5%-7.5%. The company had set a sales target of 4.32m vehicles for this year, up 9.6% on last year, helped by the launch of new EV models including the Kona Electric, Genesis GV60, the electrified GV70 and Ioniq 6.

The automaker was currently investing US$5.5bn in a new facility in Georgia with an annual production capacity of 300,000 EVs per year to meet growing local demand.

The company was targeting 73,000 EV sales in the US this year, up from 29,320 in 2022.