Hyundai Motor has just topped Samsung to become South Korea’s most profitable publicly-traded company after a successful quarter where its sales and profits rose considerably.
The car manufacturer revealed in its first quarter earnings report that revenue generated from its sales jumped by 24.7% in the last quarter compared to 12 months ago, contributing to an 86.3% increase in operating profit. This came on the back of Hyundai’s sales rising 13.2% globally to 1,021,712 units in the January-March period.
A few reasons explain the jump in revenue. For example, Hyundai’s SUV sales increased while the Genesis brand also went from strength to strength. The brand also sold nearly 66,000 electric vehicles in the first quarter, a 48% increase year-on-year, Korea Times reports.
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“Sales in markets outside of Korea were up by 10.7 percent to 830,665 units, while sales in Korea increased 25.6 percent to 191,047 units,” Hyundai noted in its financial report. “The strong sales mainly stemmed from the improvement of production as chip and component supplies stabilized worldwide.”
Hyundai continues to make significant investments in the electric vehicle space. It is moving ahead with plans to establish an EV battery cell plant in Georgia with South Korean’s SK On, the world’s fifth-largest supplier of EV batteries. Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Hyundai Mobis all recently approved the plan having first announced an agreement with SK On in November 2022 with the aim of securing EV battery supplies for the North American market.
Total investment for the joint venture is tipped to hit as high as $5 billion with Hyundai Motor Group and SK On each holding a 50% stake in the company. This battery plant is expected to start manufacturing in the second half of 2025 and will have the capacity to produce 35 gigawatts of EV batteries on an annual basis. That is enough to power 300,000 EVs.
