There’s going big and there’s going, well, BIG. Korean automaker Hyundai just laid out a plan to launch no fewer than 36 new or significantly updated models in the Canadian, American and/or Mexican markets between now and 2030.
That includes cars, SUVs and trucks, as well as commercial vehicles. Hyundai is also including in the total new variants of existing models, like XRT and N versions. And undoubtedly, some of those launches will be in just one or two of the three North American markets.
Still, the number is an impressive one, and it speaks to the importance Hyundai accords the North American market.
Hyundai president and CEO José Muñoz outlined the strategy at Hyundai Motor Company’s annual general shareholder meeting.
A feast of powertrains
Hyundai also says it’s committed to introducing all-electric models, but it will balance its offering with a range of gas-only and hybrid options, and even alluded to extended-range electric powertrain, wherein a gas engine is present but solely to charge and act in support of the electric motor.
The scope of Hyundai’s intentions may be new, but its prioritization of North America is not. The company had already announced it plans to invest $26 billion USD in the United States. Out of that influx of capital will spring a robotics innovation hub, a new steel mill in Louisiana and upgrades to its existing assembly plants, to name those.
Tariffs
Like other carmakers, Hyundai has had to contend with the tariffs imposed by imported vehicles by the U.S. administration. On that subject, CEO Muñoz reiterated that by 2030, Hyundai wants 80 percent of the vehicles sold in the U.S. to be produced there. It plans to raise supply-chain components to reach the same level by that same target year, up from the current 60 percent.
What that means for Canada isn’t totally clear, since vehicles manufactured in the U.S. are currently subject to retaliatory tariffs on import into Canada. But this new product announcement is explicitly aimed at North America as a whole.
