Hyundai Motor decides to make large investment in Brazil

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and discussed cooperation plans for environment-friendly future industries, including hydrogen and future mobility. Hyundai Motor Group decided to make a large-scale investment worth 1.5 trillion won in Brazil, which is strengthening its carbon neutrality policies, to enhance hydrogen energy and environment-friendly mobility businesses. The decision is interpreted as the group’s efforts to build a foundation to expand its environment-friendly business scope to Latin America, beyond its current presence in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

According to Hyundai Motor Group on Friday, its Chair Chung met with the Brazilian president in the president’s office in Brasilia on Thursday (local time). “The Brazilian headquarters of Hyundai Motor Group and its local partners are planning to invest 1.1 billion dollars (about 1.46 trillion won) by 2032 in environment-friendly sectors and future technologies, such as hydrogen,” said the group’s chair.

The two also discussed Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), a focus of the group’s latest efforts, and small modular reactors (SMRs), which the group is currently developing. “I am sure that AAM is an appropriate future transportation for the Brazilian environment. I also hope we can develop cooperation plans for SMRs,” said Chung.

“Hyundai Motor Group, which plans to invest in the environment-friendly hydrogen sector and technologies, is one of the important companies growing in Brazil,” President Lula said during the meeting, emphasizing the Brazilian government’s taxation reform and improving the country’s investment environment.

Brazil is implementing various environment-friendly policies under its target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent in 2030 compared to the 2005 level and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The country also introduced the National Green Mobility and Innovation Program (Mover) in December last year, which provides 19 billion reals of tax reductions and subsidies in total to automobile manufacturers that invest in decarbonization. As a result, the country is garnering attention as a key investment destination from global automobile companies seeking environment-friendly mobility and energy markets in Latin America. In July last year, BYD Company, a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, announced a plan to build an electric vehicle production plant in Bahia, a northeastern state of Brazil, by investing three billion real.

Hyundai Motor Group reportedly took notice of Brazil’s focus on the green hydrogen energy business, which is in line with the group’s strategy to develop hydrogen mobility and related energy businesses, such as hydrogen fuel cell models NEXO, Xcient (truck), and Elec-city (bus). The group is planning to introduce IONIQ 5 and KONA Electric to the Brazilian market. The group’s only production hub in Latin America is also located in Brazil.


Jae-Hyeng Kim monami@donga.com