Hyundai Chief Targets Tesla As Company Breaks Ground On Government-Ordered Test Site

The head of Hyundai Motor North America declared his company’s electric vehicle progress is making strides towards “trying to get closer to Tesla,” the EV market leader. José Muñoz, Global COO, Hyundai Motor Group, President and CEO, Hyundai Motor North America, made his remarks as the company broke ground on a new vehicle testing complex adjacent to its technical center near Ann Arbor, Mich.

The facility that will be known as the New Safety Test Investigation and Laboratory (STIL) represents Hyundai meeting a major condition of a consent agreement with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stemming from issues with how the company dealt with a series of vehicle fires.

According to the November 27, 2020 agreement “The consent orders reflect the agency’s assessment that both Hyundai and Kia conducted untimely recalls of over 1.6 million vehicles equipped with Theta II engines, and inaccurately reported certain information to NHTSA regarding the recalls.”

In addition to monetary penalties, the automaker was ordered to build a U.S. test facility for safety investigations.

During a formal presentation Muñoz said the $51.6 million the company is spending on the STIL is “is well above the minimum requirements that we had to fulfill.” That figure is $26.6 above the minimum spending set out by NHTSA.

“This is not only something we do because of a consent order. It is progress for humanity,” said Muñoz.

STIL will employ at least 160 engineers include such features as:

• Vehicle dynamics testing areas to conduct low and high speed maneuvers and to evaluate steering, brake, system failures, electrical issues.
• A CT scan machine especially designed for automotive use
• Test track
• Field crash investigation lab

Actual construction is scheduled to begin around July 7 with STIL beginning operations in September, 2023 according to Brian Latouf, chief safety officer for Hyundai America.

“A big focus of it will be crash and electric vehicle safety, field investigations, taking issues from the field, bringing them back here, tearing the cars down, trying to understand the root cause and also the remedy for robust improvements…and we’re gonna take action,” Latouf said.

Indeed, Latouf was eager to reveal before a formal announcement scheduled for later this week that the Hyundai battery electric Ioniq 5 SUV was awarded a Top Safety Pick-Plus rating by the Insurance Institute for Auto Safety.

Muñoz later added the Ioniq 5 was the first Korean vehicle to win car of the year honors in Germany.

But Hyundai as a whole, which includes Kia and Genesis are gunning to challenge Tesla’s EV leadership, its quality issues notwithstanding.

“Consumers are realizing the good design, technology, innovation and good service of our company. In May we increased electrified vehicle sales by 86% and our mix is about 14% year to date,” Muñoz told Forbes.com. “We are coming in very fast and I think the market is recognizing it. That’s what we mean when we say we’re getting closer to the leading competitor.”

During his formal remarks Muñoz ran down a laundry list of the company’s intended U.S. investments that include:

• $10 billion investment in U.S. Through 2025
• $5.54 billion investment to build a battery electric vehicle plant in Savannah, Ga.
• Commitment to invest $300 million and increase employment by 200 at its assembly plant in Montgomery, Ala. that will build the Hyundai Santa Fe HEV, a hybrid electric SUV and the electrified Genesis GV70.

Muñoz appeared confident the combination of more attractive body styles, better technology and a Biden administration proposal to create a standardized national recharging network will accelerate EV adoption in the U.S.

“I think I’m very confident the objectives Pres. Biden has set to achieve 40%-50% battery electric sales by 2030 are going to be achieved much faster than we thought,” he predicted. “This is going in the right direction. The infrastructure is going to be a key factor that is gonna give peace of mind to the American consumer.”

With construction of the New Safety Test Investigation and Laboratory Hyundai is counting on its fulfillment of a requirement born from its missteps will, in the end, result in restoring and building that peace of mind in the marketplace as it seeks to not only take on EV leader Tesla, but surpass it.