SEOUL, May 22 – Hyundai Motor Group announced on Sunday that it will invest an additional US$5 billion in the United States by 2025 to strengthen cooperation with US firms in cutting-edge technology.
The investments, announced during a visit to Seoul by President Joe Biden, involve robotics, urban air mobility, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, the group said.
Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) and Kia Corp (000270.KS), on Friday announced plans to invest $5.5 billion in electric vehicle (EV) and battery plant manufacturing in Georgia to invest. Continue reading
Hyundai’s new electric vehicle and battery manufacturing plants will be located in the southern “Right to Work” state, where unions are less common and cannot force workers to join.
Biden, a Democrat, has called himself the most pro-union president in history. But the deal, announced by Georgia’s Republican governor, demonstrated the compromises the president may have to make when courting investment abroad.
“Hyundai and any company that invests in the United States would benefit greatly from forging partnerships with some of the most highly skilled, dedicated, dedicated workers in the world, wherever you can find, and that’s American union members,” Biden said.
“Any EV and EV battery manufacturing company would be empowered by a collective bargaining relationship with our unions.”
Hyundai Motor Group CEO Euisun Chung did not comment on the US unions.
The new investment brings the projected US total to approximately $10 billion by 2025, up from the $7.4 billion announced last year.
The world’s third-largest automaker by vehicle sales did not say where in the United States the additional $5 billion would be invested.
The automaker said Wednesday it will invest 21 trillion won ($16 billion) by 2030 to expand its electric vehicle business in South Korea. Continue reading
($1 = 1,273.5900 won)
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Heekyong Yang and Jack Kim; Edited by Bradley Perrett and Lisa Shumaker
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