Hyundai Motor Co. increased research and development spending last year despite external uncertainty, including U.S. tariff measures, as it sought to secure future competitiveness. The company is expected to continue investing this year in key technologies such as electrification and software-defined vehicles, or SDVs, to strengthen its response to global markets.
According to its annual business report filed March 18 with South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service, Hyundai spent 5.5354 trillion won on R&D last year, accounting for 3.0% of revenue.
The spending came even as uncertainty weighed on the industry, including an electric-vehicle demand slowdown and higher U.S. export tariffs. Hyundai’s R&D outlays have risen for several years. The total increased by nearly 1 trillion won from the previous year’s 4.5894 trillion won, and the share of revenue rose 0.4 percentage points to 3.0% from 2.6%.
Hyundai reported weaker results last year. Operating profit fell 19.5% from a year earlier to 11.4679 trillion won. Still, the company said expanded local production and adjustments to sales strategy helped it rank second in annual operating profit in the global auto market, surpassing Germany’s Volkswagen Group for the first time.
To reduce cost burdens such as tariffs, Hyundai raised utilization at overseas plants, aiming to boost price competitiveness by producing more locally rather than exporting from South Korea. By region, plant utilization was highest in South Korea at 102.1% and lowest in Vietnam at 37.6%. Other figures were Brazil 102.0%, the United States 65.3% to 100.6%, Turkey 98.5%, India 94.2%, the Czech Republic 83.7% and Indonesia 47.3%.
South Korea remained Hyundai’s largest production base, with 1.808 million vehicles produced last year. It was followed by India with 820,000, the United States with 460,000, the Czech Republic with 330,000, Brazil with 210,000, Turkey with 200,000, Indonesia with 150,000 and Vietnam with 113,000.
Despite the localization strategy, vehicle prices edged up, influenced by higher parts costs. The average overseas selling price for passenger cars last year was 75.91 million won, up 6.91 million won from 69.00 million won a year earlier. In South Korea, the average was 56.17 million won, up 2.20 million won from 53.97 million won.
Average selling prices for recreational vehicles were 80.44 million won overseas and 55.81 million won in South Korea. Overseas RV prices rose 16.57 million won from a year earlier, while domestic RV prices increased by about 2.38 million won.
Separately, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung received a record-high annual pay package last year. His total compensation from three group companies — Hyundai Motor, Kia and Hyundai Mobis — totaled 17.461 billion won. His annual compensation from the three companies was 5.98 billion won in 2020, 8.776 billion won in 2021, 10.626 billion won in 2022, 12.201 billion won in 2023 and 11.518 billion won in 2024.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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