Hyundai looks to repeat late founder’s Mideast success with EVs, hydrogen

Hyundai Motor Group is venturing into the Middle East as it explores new business opportunities with cutting-edge technologies in the region, looking to recreate the pioneering legacy of Chung Ju-yung, Hyundai Group’s late founder.

During President Yoon Suk Yeol's state visit to the Middle East, the South Korean conglomerate announced a series of agreements and contracts to set up a new manufacturing plant for electric vehicles and cooperate in the eco-friendly energy sector with efforts to establish a hydrogen mobility ecosystem and construct mega-sized plants in Middle Eastern countries.

The region has a special meaning for Hyundai Motor Group, as its founder created his legacy there in the 1970s. Chung led Hyundai’s aggressive bidding campaign to capture a signifiant share of the region’s construction market, successfully scoring massive projects including the famous construction of an enormous industrial harbor in Jubail, an eastern coastal city in Saudi Arabia.

Hyundai Motor Group's Executive Chair Chung Euisun, the grandson of the late founder, on Monday visited Hyundai E&C’s underground tunnel construction site in the Line, a linear city being built as part of Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion-Neom project to create a futuristic, urban area in its northwestern Tabuk Province.

According to Hyundai E&C, the company is currently working on a 12.5-kilometer part of the Line’s underground tunnel for high-speed and freight trains.

“Hyundai Motor Group will advance the history built by Hyundai E&C’s trust together and actively provide support with responsibility,” said Chung as he thanked the employees there and emphasized the importance of quality and safety.