Hyundai Motor Company History
Seoul, South Korea
The Hyundai Motor Company (현대 자동차), a South Korean automaker was founded in 1967 by Chung Ju-yung as part of the Hyundai Motor Group.
History
From 1967 Hyundai had at first built the European Ford Cortina under license and began in the early 1970s to develop their own cars.
The first type, as the Hyundai Pony, was presented in 1974 at the 55th Turin Motor Show. In addition, were light trucks manufactured, since the mid-80s and later heavy trucks and buses. While the technology initially built on Mitsubishi models, Hyundai Motors developed since the 1990s, its own cars.
From 1978 the cars were exported to Europe and by 1983, also Central America and Canada joined, followed a year later to the United States. By the 1990s, in order to gain a better foothold in the European market at the beginning of the Hyundai Motor Company pursued an aggressive price policy along with fitted generous standard equipment only available as extras from European makes 20 years earlier, similar to Japanese car manufacturers, in order to sell the models.
In 1998, the South Korean car manufacturer Kia Motors was taken over by Hyundai. A collaboration with Daimler-Chrysler lasted from 2001 to 2004. In October 2005, together with the car manufacturers DaimlerChrysler and Mitsubishi, the joint venture Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) was founded, which produces engines for the companies involved. Meanwhile, the product range ranging from small cars to luxury sedans is no longer limited to passenger cars, but also includes trucks and buses. HMC is also the largest Korean commercial vehicle manufacturer.
The first Hyundai vehicle plant in Europe has started production in 2009 with the construction of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech in Nošovice, Czech Republic. Followed in 2010, with the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus (HMMR) car plant was built in the Kamenka industrial area near St. Petersburg In November 2012, a production site was opened in Piracicaba, Brazil.
Changing times
With the introduction of a new model generation from the year 2001, the all-new models which now popular SUV types for a pioneering Hyundai model range. In late 2004, the sale of the Hyundai Tucson, which together with the new generation of the Hyundai Sonata In the course of this model and technology offensive, the Hyundai Motor Company also invested several billion euros in the development of its own and very modern common rail diesel engines with variable turbocharger blade geometry and modernized the petrol engines to help with changing laws with emission standards along with the hybrid models, in which an electric drive supports a natural gas-powered gasoline engine. In early 2016, Hyundai presented the Hyundai Ioniq, which is offered as a pure electric car and in two hybrid versions (plug-in from mid-2017). The electric version is considered one of the most efficient electric cars suitable for everyday use. Hyundai plans to also build hydrogen-powered trucks and cars.
