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Shortly after announcing the development of X-ble Shoulder, a mechanical exoskeleton without electrical assistance, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors announced they had signed this business agreement, through which they plan to engage in various collaborations to strengthen the competitiveness of mobility materials.
Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors will jointly invest 20 billion won (US$ 13.6 billion) in Kolon Spaceworks, a composite materials company created in July 2024. At the time, South Korea’s Kolon Group announced the launch of a new advanced composite materials company, Kolon Spaceworks, through the integration of the composite materials businesses within the group – including Kolon DACC Composite, Kolon Glotech and Kolon ENP – through an intra-group asset transfer.
Under the deal, the 2 Korean automakers now own 11 percent of Kolon Spaceworks. Hyundai will invest 12 billion won (US$ 8.3 billion) while Kia will contribute 8 billion won ($US 5.5 billion).
Specifically, the plan is to secure product competitiveness through joint research and development to improve hydrogen storage vessel materials and battery cover performance, and to meet global eco-friendly regulations such as the European Union (EU)’s ELV (End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations) – with the EU considered a major sales market.
Hyundai and Kia also aim to strengthen the paintless composite moulding technology currently applied to Hyundai’s ST1 platform for commercial EVs.
“With the paradigm shift in the automobile industry, the application of environmentally-friendly materials is expanding fast,” said Yang Heui-won, president of Hyundai and Kia’s R&D Division. “We anticipate that through this partnership with Kolon, we can preemptively develop composite materials for automobiles and enhance our business competition through technological innovation.”
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