EcoPro said Wednesday it has celebrated 10 years of supplying battery materials to Sony, later acquired by Murata Manufacturing. According to the company, it first supplied high-nickel cathode materials for Sony in 2013 for the first time for a Korean company. The two companies have kept business ties even after Murata, a Japanese electronics manufacturer, took over Sony’s loss-making battery business in 2017. EcoPro has been providing thousands of tons of nickel, cobalt and aluminum (NCA)

Mobility Aug. 30, 2023

Hyundai Motor Group said Tuesday that its three startups -- Pitin, Madde and Evacycle -- spun off less than a year after participating in the company's in-house startup incubator program. It usually takes more than a year for startups to become separate firms from their parent company, but they have shown great potential in the automotive and semiconductor business in just nine months, the carmaker said. Pitin has developed a battery subscription service using refurbished batteries for co

Mobility Aug. 29, 2023

South Korean battery materials maker Posco Future M on Monday pledged to secure 42 trillion won ($32.4 billion) in sales and 3.4 trillion won in operating profits by 2030, under a new vision of accelerating eco-friendly future materials business. “We are the one and only total solution provider for rechargeable battery materials that operates a value chain for mining, processing and recycling,” said Posco Future M CEO Kim Jun-hyung in a town hall meeting in Seoul. “Posco Future

Mobility Aug. 28, 2023

The first Korean-made sport utility vehicle, Hyundai’s Santa Fe, has returned with its biggest update since its debut in 2000, with improved off-road features in design and performance. Touting the All New Santa Fe as a mid-sized family vehicle that can cater to both city commuters and outdoor enthusiasts, the carmaker laid out an ambitious sales target for next year -- 135,000 units in North America, 16,000 units in Europe and 70,000 units in Korea. “From the beginning, the Santa

Mobility Aug. 27, 2023

South Korean battery materials company EcoPro said Wednesday it is poised to set up a joint venture for a battery cathode materials manufacturing plant with SK On and Ford Motor Company in Quebec, Canada. Of the 1.2 trillion won ($897.3 million) investment, the joint venture, called EcoPro Cam Canada LP, plans to provide 600 billion won, while the Canadian government and Quebec will cover the other half in subsidies. EcoPro said the company will hold the largest stake in the joint venture compar

Mobility Aug. 23, 2023

LS e-Mobility Solutions, an electric vehicle parts manufacturer under LS Electric, said Tuesday it has clinched a deal with Hyundai and its smaller affiliate Kia to supply EV battery management components worth 250 billion won ($186.5 million). The company’s products, called EV Relay, are used to maintain the safe operation of batteries in EVs by transferring battery current to inverters, while shutting it down in case of fire or current voltage overload. The company plans to supply EV Rel

Mobility Aug. 22, 2023

Skepticism among scientists has been deepening in the past few days over a Korean research team’s discovery of the room-temperature superconductor known as LK-99, after a slew of replication efforts have fallen short. The University of Maryland’s Condensed Matter Theory Center on Tuesday said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, “With a great deal of sadness, we now believe that the game is over. LK-99 is not a superconductor, not even at room temperatures or at ve

Technology Aug. 10, 2023

Hyundai Motor Group’s economic impact on South Korea's economy outpaced that of Samsung Electronics for the first time last year, data showed Wednesday. The combined economic contribution of Hyundai and its smaller affiliate Kia came to 164.6 trillion won ($124.7 billion), going beyond the 148.1 trillion won of Samsung Electronics, according to data from market tracker CEO Score. The economic impact of companies measures the wealth they create and return through local business activit

Industry Aug. 9, 2023

Defense-to-energy giant Hanwha Group operates the largest number of overseas units among the nation’s top chaebol groups, with the figure surging from last year’s 102 to 739 this year, according to a recent report by corporate tracker Korea CXO Institute on Tuesday. Hanwha, the nation’s seventh-largest conglomerate, outpaced its bigger rivals such as Samsung, SK and Hyundai Motor. In particular, the number of affiliates in the US jumped by 45 to 241, while those in Spain increa

Industry Aug. 8, 2023

A South Korean research team recently created a buzz with a claim that it has created one of the holy grails in science -- a room-temperature superconductor called LK-99 – prompting researchers around the world into a race to replicate the experiment. Two weeks after their claimed discovery, no one has yet been able to completely reproduce the sensational result that could revolutionize power grids. Amid the mixed assessment on the research's validity, the Korean team, led by Lee Suk-

Technology Aug. 7, 2023

With global carmakers, mainly Tesla, making forays into the growing Indian market, Hyundai Motor Group is seeking to acquire General Motors’ manufacturing plant there -- but faces challenges in its efforts. The world’s third-largest carmaker plans to complete the acquisition of GM’s Indian plant in Talegaon by this year, however, is still facing opposition from some 1,000 workers formerly employed by the US automaker. On whether the terms of the deal to acquire the plant incl

Mobility Aug. 6, 2023

Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday it has invested $50 million in Canadian artificial intelligence semiconductor startup Tenstorrent in a move to secure key technology for future mobility. Tenstorrent recently closed a $100 million strategic funding round, for which Hyundai and its smaller affiliate Kia shelled out $30 million and $20 million, respectively. Samsung Catalyst Fund, Samsung Electronics’ evergreen multi-stage venture capital fund, was also reported as one of the largest investo

Mobility Aug. 3, 2023

Hyundai Mobis, the car parts manufacturer affiliated with Hyundai Motor Group, said Wednesday it has supplied newly developed glove compartments inspired by airplane overhead bins to Kia’s three-row family electric car, the EV9. The parabolic motion glove compartment refers to its design that opens and closes following a parabolic trajectory similar to overhead airplane luggage compartments. Unlike typical glove compartments with covers or rotational pull handles, it gradually slides open

Mobility Aug. 2, 2023

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, the shipbuilding unit under HD Hyundai, said Tuesday it will acquire STX Heavy Industries, a Korea-based marine diesel engine manufacturer in a 81.3 billion won ($63.5 million) deal. The company said it signed a contract with the private equity firm Pinetree Partners to purchase its 6.52 million shares in the engine manufacturer and an additional 5.36 million newly issued shares. The shipbuilder will become the largest shareholder holding a 35 pe

Mobility Aug. 1, 2023

SK Nexilis, an SKC subsidiary, said Monday it has partnered up with Japan-based Toyota Tsusho Corp. to set up a joint venture and produce copper foil for electric vehicle rechargeable batteries in North America. Under the joint investment, SK Nexilis will be in charge of copper foil production, while Toyota Tsusho Corp. plans to secure battery makers in North America. Copper foil is used as a key anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Details such as the size of the deal and the location wh

Mobility July 31, 2023