- Hyundai-Kia’s Environment Technology Center to be the Mecca of eco-friendly cars
- Hyundai-Kia to create more jobs for suppliers by building fuel-efficient, eco-friendly cars
- `Green technology’ will be a new growth engine, replacing the use of fossil fuels & cutting CO2 emissions

SEOUL, Korea, Sept. 8, 2008 - Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group (HKAG), the world’s fifth-largest automaker, will help create a cleaner environment and contribute to the national economy by developing low-carbon emitting, eco-friendly cars.

Chung Mong-Koo, HKAG’s Chairman & CEO, pledged that the automaker would boost its efforts to propel South Korea into the world’s top four `green car’ producing nations: “We need to focus on green technology and clean energy development to help the nation become one of the world's four `green-car powerhouses’,” Chairman Chung said.

As part of this strategy, Hyundai Motor Company has announced that it will launch its first small hybrid car in July next year; the Elantra Hybrid LPI. HKAG will expand this line-up to include mid-sized sedans and plans to produce 30,000 hybrid vehicles by 2010. HKAG will increase this number to 500,000 units by 2018, creating more jobs and profits for its suppliers.

HKAG also plans to commercialize Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) by 2012, producing 1,000 units that year and increasing the number to 30,000 units by 2018. In the long term, HKAG plans to produce one million units a year by 2030, serving as not only an eco-friendly vehicle, but as a growth engine for a high-end industry.

Through the development of HKAG’s low carbon-emitting, eco-friendly cars, consumers are expected to benefit from some of the industry-wide effects outlined below:

- Replacing fossil fuel usage: By 2013, about 200,000 eco-friendly cars are expected to be in operation, cutting about 72,000 kiloliters of oil. This amount of oil can operate about 41,400 Sonatas for a year. By 2018, this amount of oil is estimated to be enough to operate over 210,000 Sonatas a year.
- CO₂ emissions: Operation of such cars is estimated to cut 310,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions by 2013. This is equivalent to the amount of CO₂ emitted from 77,000 Sonatas for one year.
- Create new growth engines: Advances in hybrid technology will not only boost the development of plug-in hybrids, but mini electric cars, electric scooters, electric cars and other related businesses and infrastructure related to recharging these vehicles, expanding electricity demand.

In particular, HKAG is planning to commercialize plug-in hybrids sometime after 2013 and is currently working on the development of the battery, which is the core technology to make a world-class vehicle. Developing fuel-cell technology will naturally create more related `green’ industries, such as infrastructure related to hydrogen fuels and power supplies in homes. These industries will not only help Korea become a technology leader, but create more jobs and contribute to the nation’s economy.

Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Co. has grown into the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group which was ranked as the world’s fifth-largest automaker in 2007 and includes over two dozen auto-related subsidiaries and affiliates. Employing over 75,000 people worldwide, Hyundai Motor posted sales of US$74.9 billion in 2007 on a consolidated-basis and US$32.8 billion on a non-consolidated basis (using the average currency exchange of 929 won per US dollar). Hyundai vehicles are sold in 193 countries through some 6,000 dealerships and showrooms. Further information about Hyundai Motor Co. and its products is available at http://www.hyundai-motor.com

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