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Hyundai sticks to EV rollout plans, sees solid growth this year

SEOUL — Hyundai Motor said on Thursday it would not delay plans to roll out new electric vehicles and was upbeat about prospects for continued growth this year — a contrast to recent steps by rivals to cut back on EV output. Electric vehicle sales are growing strongly but not as much as carmakers had forecast, with demand hit by high interest rates. "We do not plan to dramatically reduce EV production or our line-up due to likely near-term hurdles as we believe EV sales will grow longer term," Seo Gang Hyun, an executive vice president at the South Korean automaker, told an earnings briefing for analysts. The Hyundai Motor Group, which encompasses the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands, said in April it plans to launch 31 EVs by 2030. This includes the launch of the Ioniq 7 SUV next year. Seo said Hyundai's EV sales next year could be slightly lower than previously expected, but the automaker had the production flexibility to boost output of gasoline engine cars if demand shifted that way and he did not expect a significant impact on overall sales. When asked about the impact on Hyundai Motor of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union reaching a tentative labour deal with Ford, Seo said the company expects the deal will have an impact on wage increases at its U.S. factories, but such costs could be covered as the automaker has been putting effort into reducing costs, such as in logistics. Hyundai Motor, which is not a member of the UAW, operates an assembly plant in Alabama and is building a factory to produce EVs in Georgia. For the third quarter, Hyundai booked a net profit of 3.2 trillion won ($2.4 billion), more than double its year-earlier result and beating an LSEG SmartEstimate of 2.9 trillion won, with the automaker helped by a favourable exchange rate. Sales also increased, climbing 8.7% to 41 trillion won on solid demand for high-margin gasoline SUVs. Sales of EVs and hybrids also grew, up by a third to 169,000 units. This month has seen a flurry of downbeat EV announcements. Citing flattening demand for EVs, GM said it would delay production by a year of Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra electric pickup trucks at a plant in Michigan. Ford is temporarily cutting one of three shifts at the plant that builds its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck. Tesla is also slowing plans for a Mexico factory, while GM and Honda announced on Wednesday that they were ending a $5 billion plan to develop lower-cost EVs together.

U.S., South Korea strike a new trade deal

WASHINGTON — The United States and South Korea have reached agreement on a new trade pact, the White House said on Tuesday. "We have come to an agreement in principle, and we expect to roll out specific details on that very soon," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a briefing. Her comments were the Trump administration's first confirmation that the two sides had reached an agreement in trade talks covering revisions to the U.S. South Korean Trade Agreement (KORUS) and a South Korean exemption from new U.S. metals tariffs. Seoul on Monday announced a deal to limit exports to the U.S. of South Korean steel, while extending high U.S. tariffs on any possible South Korean pickup trucks and increasing U.S. automakers' access to the Korean market. But details of the agreement have not yet been released by the U.S. Trade Representative's office, which led the negotiations for the United States after President Donald Trump last year called the 6-year-old bilateral pact a "horrible deal" that had doubled the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea since 2012. The deal is expected to permanently exempt South Korea from Trump's tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, but South Korea will have to reduce its steel exports to the United States by 30 percent from its average over the past three years to about 2.68 million tons. South Korea was the third largest steel exporter to the United States last year after Canada and Brazil. The agreement also was expected to double South Korea's import quota for cars meeting U.S. safety standards — not necessarily Korean standards — to 50,000 per manufacturer per year from 25,000 previously. The big challenge now would be getting unimpressed Korean consumers to buy them. The 25 percent U.S. tariff for pickup trucks, which was due to begin a phase-out starting in 2019, would be extended for another 20 years, according to South Korean officials. This would virtually ensure that any pickup truck contemplated by Korean automakers Hyundai or Kia for the U.S. market would be built in the United States.Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe and David LawderRelated Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Image Credit: Reuters Government/Legal Hyundai Kia

Hyundai and Kia to invest in self-driving startup Aurora

Hyundai Motor Co said on Thursday it would invest in self-driving car software startup Aurora along with Kia Motors Corp to speed up development of autonomous vehicle technologies. "With the new investment, the companies have agreed to expand research to a wide range of models and to build an optimal platform for Hyundai and Kia's autonomous vehicles," Hyundai said. Aurora said in a blog post that Hyundai and Kia's investment is part of a series B financing round, which has now raised more than $600 million. Aurora, which just announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, competes with Alphabet's Waymo and General Motors' majority-owned Cruise, among others. (Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)