Hyundai plans to develop and produce its own automotive chips to reduce its reliance on outside suppliers.
While recently speaking with reporters, Hyundai’s global chief operating officer, Jose Munoz, acknowledged that while the worst has passed for the ongoing semiconductor shortage, the company is doing what it can to avoid similar issues in the future.
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“The (chip) industry is reacting very, very fast,” Munoz told Reuters. “But also in our case, we want to be able to develop our own chips within the group, so we are a little bit less dependent in a potential situation like this. This takes a lot of investment and time, but this is something we’re working on.”
Munoz added that the brand’s Hyundai Mobis parts affiliate would play an important role in the development of in-house chips.
“The ability to secure supply may be a distinguishing feature of the successful OEMs that survive the industry shakeup and consolidation,” senior market development director of commercial markets at Real-Time Innovations, Bob Leigh, told TechCrunch. “It is more likely that OEMs will acquire and/or partner with the firms that can secure the supply. But, this shortage will drive the industry to adopt new chip technologies that are more economical to produce. The chip makers don’t want to make the legacy chips that automakers want.”
Despite the chip shortages, Hyundai has managed to increase its global sales throughout 2021. Munoz also said the company is on track to begin producing electric vehicles in the United States in 2022, while simultaneously upgrading and increasing production capacity at its Alabama factory.
