Hyundai Motor will join hands with Chinese partners to further deepen the strategy of technological innovation and localization in China and continue to cultivate the Chinese market.
On October 18, the technology vision release and launch ceremony of Hyundai Motor China foresight Technology Research and Development Center was held in Shanghai.
This event not only marks another important milestone for Hyundai Motor Group in the Chinese market, but also a key step in deepening its technological innovation and localization strategy in China.
As Hyundai’s first overseas forward-looking R & D center, the China foresight Technology Research and Development Center in Shanghai was established in 2021, focusing on the five cutting-edge areas of self-driving, intelligent cockpit, shared travel, interconnection technology and electrification.
The establishment of the wholly-owned legal person company marks Hyundai’s firm commitment to the Chinese market and will inject new impetus into the group’s technological innovation around the world.
Since its establishment, Hyundai China forward-looking Technology Research and Development Center has continuously paid attention to the needs of Chinese consumers and explored forward-looking technology R & D and application scenarios that are more suitable for Chinese consumers.
In terms of user research, the UX Studio, which Hyundai’s China foresight Technology Research and Development Center plans to open in Jing’an Temple in Shanghai next year, will become a brand contact between Hyundai and Chinese users.
In terms of smart driving, it will focus on the forward-looking research and mass production development of L2-L4 at all stages.
In addition, RoboTaxi has been granted a demonstration operation license in Shanghai and will carry out demonstration operation.
As for the cockpit, it will land the application scenarios that Chinese users like in the new platform, and at the same time dig deep into the leading research in the field of AI.
In SDV software development, we will also carry out some independent research and development of basic software.
In order to gain an in-depth understanding of this strategic initiative and the significance behind it, we had the privilege of interviewing Yang Feng, general manager of Hyundai Automotive China forward Technology Research and Development Center.
“by establishing this wholly-owned company, Hyundai foresight Automotive Technology Development (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., we will further deepen our ties with Chinese users, promote the transformation of intelligence and promote the application of advanced technology,” he said in a speech at the ceremony.
” Hyundai Motor will invest more in China.
The importance of the Chinese market is self-evident.
It is not only the second largest economy in the world, but also has a large consumer group.
Nowadays, more and more car companies choose to set up R & D centers and design centers in China, but few of them set up special corporate companies as independent as Hyundai Motor.
In response, Yang Feng said that there are multiple considerations behind the establishment of an independent legal person, the most important of which is based on the needs of business development, as well as other policy aspects, such as the settlement of the company’s employees and the application for intelligent driving license, etc.
and follow-up cooperation with suppliers is also more flexible and smooth.
More importantly, based on various considerations, Hyundai Motor is actively involved in China’s R & D and is full of confidence in the future.
“from the beginning of the business, we have explored a way to cooperate with suppliers, and as the business grows, Hyundai also attaches great importance to the Chinese market.
After entering China for more than 20 years, Hyundai Motor Group has invested more than 13 billion US dollars in China and established 65 legal persons.
” Yang Feng said.
In fact, after three years of development, Hyundai Shanghai foresight Technology Research and Development Center has grown from a few people at first to more than 200 people now, the size of the team is constantly expanding, and the business framework has become clearer.
“when the company was first established in 2021, our team was very small, mainly because the Korean headquarters sent several colleagues to China to do preliminary research and planning.
There were only a few people on the team at that time.
Then we started a large-scale recruitment, and I joined the No.
1 employee at that time, and then began to form a team to carry out the business.
” Today, the forward-looking technology research and development center is investing heavily in various areas, such as wisdom module, smart driving, user research, and so on.
This year, it has also added a lot of local staff, and the proportion of local staff has reached more than 90%.
Yang Feng also said that Hyundai has always been user-oriented, so it set up a user experience development department at the start-up stage, and the department is still growing.
In addition, there will be a new UX Studio located in Jing’an Temple, which will be specially used to communicate with young Chinese users.
There are only two user experience centers of this scale in the world, one is located in Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea, and the other is in Jing’an Temple in Shanghai.
We expect the center to officially open in May and June next year.
” This is enough to show that Hyundai attaches great importance to the Chinese market.
He also said: “We will also continue to expand in the front-end styling of modern styling and Kia styling.
” Because the popular direction of Chinese models is changing rapidly, we have trained a very excellent team of styling designers.
” “the cooperation with Chinese suppliers will be strengthened in the future”.
When the wave of electrification is advancing rapidly, Chinese enterprises have made rapid development and progress in electrification and intelligence, and Hyundai Motor will also cooperate extensively with Chinese enterprises.
In this regard, Yang Feng said: “now the development of new technology is very fast, like the way to do it completely outsourced is not very realistic, and it is difficult for the products to be personalized, differentiated and competitive.
So at this level, our concept of cooperation with suppliers is that ‘professional people do professional things’, give play to their advantages in their respective areas of expertise, and jointly create personalized, differentiated and competitive products.
” He gave two examples to illustrate.
For example, intelligence appraisal technology does a good job in the perception of self-driving, then they do the perception module, but Hyundai is responsible for the entire software platform, this cooperation model is conducive to the promotion of modern technology around the world.
In the field of wisdom module, Hyundai Motor and China Kechuangda and other partners also have in-depth cooperation and exploration.
“We are responsible for the planning and future development of the entire platform, while partners are responsible for some specific business applications.
At the same time, for the company’s unique applications, we will work with partners to develop.
This “you have me, I have you” way of cooperation, give play to their respective strengths in their respective fields.
” And he also said that in the process of selecting suppliers, the main emphasis is on its technical strength and whether it can well meet the needs of Chinese users.
At the same time, this is also a win-win cooperation opportunity.
“if their technology wants to go out to sea and apply it to the global platform, working with us will be a very good entry point.
After all, Hyundai is the global TOP3 auto company, with global sales of 7.
3 million vehicles last year.
Such a completeA global network platform can bring many win-win cooperation opportunities for both parties.
“, Obviously, this will bring new opportunities to both Hyundai Motor and supplier companies.
In the fields of smart cockpit and smart driving, Yang Feng also said that there are possibilities for more high-field and high-level cooperation.
He said: “Although only a few companies were displayed at this technical forum, the companies we actually exchanged and communicated with in technology far exceed these.
Therefore, we use a large number of local employees, and the supplier database also includes many mainstream companies.
For large-scale cooperation, we are actively considering and exploring to quickly demonstrate our intelligent capabilities in the China market.
“, Next, Hyundai Motor will also have a plan for a China special model next year, which will also usher in a new chapter in Hyundai Motor’s electrification development in China.
In this regard, Yang Feng answered some questions about this car.
He said: “In the China market, we pay more attention to user needs.
Although the technology of the E-GMP platform will be applied, we will optimize and iterate technology according to the actual needs of China users.
At the same time, we also realized that we cannot use the EGMP platform purely, so our Yantai and Shanghai teams work closely with many suppliers to ensure that the models developed fully meet the expectations of China users through interviews and co-creation.
” Facing the future, Hyundai Motor will continue to adhere to the concept of “In China, For China, To Global”, continuously deepen its connection with the China market, and accelerate the research and development and application of various advanced technologies.
It is expected that in the next few years, the company will launch more localized electric vehicles that meet the preferences of China consumers, and will also continue to make efforts in hydrogen energy, robots and other fields to help achieve green and sustainable development goals.
At the same time, Hyundai Motor will also join hands with China partners to continuously explore new technologies and business models, further increase investment in R & D in the China market, and create a brighter new future.
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