Will Biden meet with Chung Eui-sun to discuss ‘future mobility’… Focus on investment results in the US

On the last day of his visit to Korea, US President Joe Biden, who is working hard to build infrastructure for the electric vehicle industry, meets Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun. The Hyundai Motor Group is dedicated to mobility businesses in North America, including autonomous vehicles, urban air mobility (UAM), and robotics, as well as electric vehicles.

According to Reuters and other foreign media on the 20th, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced that President Biden will meet with Chairman Chung in some place in Seoul on the morning of the 22nd. Although it has not yet been officially announced, it was explained that the purpose was to express gratitude for the fact that the Hyundai Motor Group has virtually confirmed the establishment of an electric vehicle plant in Georgia, USA. However, as Hyundai Motor Group is actively carrying out its mobility business in the United States, it is expected that various opinions will come and go about the related business.

Earlier, on the morning of the 22nd, the last day of President Biden’s three-day, two-night visit to Korea, the schedule was not disclosed. He chose Samsung Electronics’ Pyeongtaek campus as his first visit to Korea and made the establishment of partnerships between the two countries’ major industries as the main issue of his visit. A meeting with Hyundai Motor Group, which has confirmed large-scale investment in the US, was also expected to take place.

At first, it was expected that President Biden would visit Hyundai Motor’s Namyang Research Center or Ilsan Hyundai Motor Studio. However, due to the hectic schedule of visits to Korea, it is highly likely that the meeting will take place by directly visiting the Yongsan Hyatt Hotel, the residence of President Biden.

Since Chairman Chung has made a large-scale investment in the United States, it is likely that he will ask President Biden to fire support for Hyundai Motor Group’s major projects in the United States. Chairman Jung presented a blueprint for a comprehensive mobility company that reorganizes the group’s future business into 50% automobiles, 30% personal vehicles such as UAM, and 20% robotics. The fact that the Hyundai Motor Group announced its plans to establish an electric vehicle in Georgia at the time of President Biden’s visit to Korea is also interpreted as a step conscious of this meeting.

A Hyundai Motor Group official said, “We are aware of what the US government has said, and if we meet, we will explain Hyundai Motor Group’s future business in the US well.”

Earlier, Hyundai Motor Group announced a plan to invest $7.4 billion (about 9.4 trillion won) in the United States by 2025. The U.S. electric vehicle market is expected to grow significantly by 2035, reaching 8 million units. The global market for UAM is expected to reach 1640 trillion won by 2040, and the US is a blueprint for becoming the first country to commercialize UAM with the goal of allowing UAM operation in 2023. Hyundai Motor Group’s aggressive investment is also aimed at strengthening its position in the United States in line with the Biden administration’s industrial policy vision.

Ho-geun Lee, a professor of automobiles at Daedeok University, said, “We want to give the Hyundai Motor Group recognition that it is a key partner in laying the foundation for the US mobility industry while responding to the Biden government’s ‘Buy America’ policy. A virtuous cycle effect can also appear in the future mobility industry.”