Hyundai’s electric car competitiveness in the aesthetics of Apple… The highest price ever

With Apple sending a’love call’ to Hyundai Motor Company, public interest in the autonomous electric vehicle alliance is hot. Hyundai Motor Company(267,000 +8.54%)It is evaluated that it is a result of E-GMP, an electric vehicle-only platform completed by Eui-seon Eui-seon, and the innovation movement of Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Eui-sun. As expectations for the alliance between the two companies were raised, Hyundai Motor’s share price hit a record high.

According to the industry on the 11th, it is known that the ongoing discussion of collaboration between Apple and Hyundai Motors began with Apple’s proposal.

Apple has not officially mentioned that it will enter the electric vehicle market, but the auto industry is accepting it as a fixed fact.

In 2014, Apple began developing electric vehicles with the’Titan Project’. However, in 2017, due to the overlapping of Apple’s poor performance and test vehicle accidents, the project was temporarily suspended and related personnel were largely laid off. Afterwards, the Titan project was restarted by recruiting Tesla’s chief engineer Doug Field as vice president in 2018.

As it has suffered from cost and efficiency problems in the past, the observation that Apple will cooperate with a proven automaker rather than directly manufacturing vehicles is predominant. Some automakers and parts/assemblies have already shown great interest in collaboration with Apple. This is because if cooperation with Apple is made, it can gain an edge in the electric vehicle market, which is transforming into a huge electronic device (IT).

In this situation, Apple reached out to Hyundai Motor Company as an object of cooperation. Apple, which has a firm position as a’game changer’ in PCs and smartphones, first saw the potential of Hyundai Motor Company, which is pursuing a transformation from a traditional manufacturing company to a mobility solution company. The industry is surprised by the fact that Apple has tried to cooperate with Hyundai Motor Company, but evaluates that Hyundai Motor Company has great strength in technology and flexibility.

Hyundai Motor Company is planning to introduce the electric vehicle Ioniq 5 based on a dedicated platform E-GMP this year. E-GMP is a platform for electric vehicles only. Existing electric vehicles were manufactured by forcibly inserting the electric motor and battery into the engine and fuel tank while using the skeleton of an internal combustion engine vehicle. Therefore, it had structural limitations that could not bring out all the performance of electric vehicles.

Unlike the internal combustion engine platform, E-GMP can make the floor flat and the space occupied by the engine, transmission, and fuel tank has disappeared, greatly increasing the use of indoor space. With a single charge, it can drive more than 500km in domestic standards, and it supports an 800V charging system as a standard, and 80% charging is possible within 18 minutes when using a super fast charger. The era of electric vehicles that can drive 100km on a 5-minute charge is opening. It is designed to apply functions that will appear in the future mobility market, such as autonomous driving, high-performance EV, and V2G (a function that sends the remaining power from the vehicle to the outside).

E-GMP, a modularized and standardized integrated platform, also has the strength of expanding the electric vehicle lineup in a short period of time if necessary. E-GMP is known to have a skateboard form jointly developed by Hyundai Motor Company with Canoe, an electric vehicle company in the United States. The length of the platform can be freely extended according to the mounting of the lower battery, and the upper part of the vehicle body of various structures can be mounted. From a small sedan to a large SUV with one platform. It simplifies the new car development process and shortens the time.

Hyundai Motor’s positive and flexible view of future mobility is also an advantage. Hyundai Motor Company predicts that future electric vehicles will transform into personalized and customized spaces beyond transportation. Hyundai Motor Company has unveiled an Ionic concept cabin equipped with a △shoes care unit △coffee machine △clothing care unit △flexible all-red display. He has secured related technologies by investing in promising startups around the world, and has also laid out his arms for urban aviation mobility (UAM), which is out of the form of automobiles, and last-mile mobility services based on electric scooters. It is a manufacturer capable of fully embracing Apple’s imagination of future electric vehicles.

It also has high-level autonomous driving technology. The Hyundai Motor Group will apply Level 3 level of partial autonomous driving technology to mass-produced cars in 2022 and promote autonomous driving commercialization service projects such as robo taxis in 2023. Through the autonomous driving joint venture’Moral’, it is expected to test Level 4 unmanned autonomous driving on public roads in Nevada, USA, and introduce a commercialization service for autonomous driving in major areas of the United States in 2023. There is no reason why Apple, who wants to join hands with automakers, rejects Hyundai.

As the possibility of cooperation with Apple has emerged, Hyundai Motor’s stock price has also changed the reported price. The stock price of Hyundai Motors recorded 289,000 won during the intraday and changed the reported price after nine years. As of 11:30 am, it is recording 260,500 won, up 9.55% from the previous day. It continued its upward trend for three consecutive trading days and climbed to the fourth place in the market capitalization of the securities market (excluding preferred stocks).

Hyundai Motor Company, which has the right to choose, is considering the benefits and losses of collaboration with Apple. If Hyundai Motors makes Apple’s electric cars through manufacturing, development and production (ODM), it is likely to become a subcontractor like Foxconn, which makes iPhones. This goes against Hyundai Motor’s strategy to lead the electric vehicle market. If Apple is in charge of the software installed in co-produced electric vehicles, there is a possibility that its own software competitiveness will decline.

The key is who manages and how to share big data related to driving from electric vehicles. The importance of driving data in the automotive market is gradually increasing. This is because it not only improves autonomous driving performance, but also becomes a weapon to open up new markets in electric vehicles evolving into IT platforms. This is why analysis suggests that if Apple intends to monopolize data, it may be a better option for Hyundai Motor Company to not collaborate.

Kim Jun-sung, a researcher at Meritz Securities, emphasized, “Increasing vehicle sales means an increase in the amount of data secured through the expansion of device distribution and an increase in users who will apply the service business developed based on the acquired data.

An automobile industry official said, “You must have seen the possibility of cooperation in the aggressive actions of Chairman Chung’s aggressive actions that continue to make bold investments.” .

Sesung Oh, reporter of Hankyung.com [email protected]
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