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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Hyundai CEO Jose Muno

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Speaker 1: spoke with Bloomberg Steven Engel in his first television interview

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Speaker 1: since assuming this role at the world's third biggest automaker.

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Speaker 1: They discussed what a second Trump presidency means for all automakers,

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Speaker 1: as well as Hyundai's investments and strategy for growth in

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Speaker 1: the US and China.

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Speaker 2: What are your contingency plans in the United States though,

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Speaker 2: because with the change of administration there to a Trump

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Speaker 2: administration which is signaled that they're going to pull back

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Speaker 2: on those tax credits. They perhaps you also lower some

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Speaker 2: of the fuel efficiency standards as well. How do you

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Speaker 2: play these changes from the Biden administration, which of course

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Speaker 2: had those tax credits under the IRA.

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Speaker 3: Our company took the decision to make a significant investment

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Speaker 3: in the US during the previous Trump administration. We haven't

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Speaker 3: invested in the US because of IRA or because of incident.

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Speaker 3: This in general is not a good policy to just

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Speaker 3: simply make an investment because of incentives, because they can

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Speaker 3: come and go right. So, as such, we believe that

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Speaker 3: the US market is the most important for US today

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Speaker 3: and it's going to continue to be the most important

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Speaker 3: in terms of not only the absolute but also the growth,

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Speaker 3: and therefore investing and localizing is a good strategy. I

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Speaker 3: think we are in a better place today than we

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Speaker 3: were four or five years ago, simply because the investment

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Speaker 3: gives us much more flexibility.

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Speaker 2: How concerned are you though that the head of your

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Speaker 2: chief competitor on the EV front, Elon Musk of Tesla,

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Speaker 2: will have an outsized influence in the White House.

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Speaker 4: I don't see that as a concern honestly.

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Speaker 3: So if anything, I think having someone who is very

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Speaker 3: close to the US industry and to the EV world,

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Speaker 3: I think it should be positive for the industry because

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Speaker 3: I think it's in his own interest and probably is

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Speaker 3: in the interests of the country to trigger investments and growth,

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Speaker 3: and also to ensure that we maintain competitiveness in our

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Speaker 3: country visa v. Chinese and other competitors. Right, so, I

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Speaker 3: think that's that is a positive.

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Speaker 2: You're former senior executive at Nissan as an outsider, now

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Speaker 2: as a competitor, that potentially that merger could upset you.

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Speaker 2: Approve you from that third position as the largest OEM.

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Speaker 2: What kind of threat would they merger between Honda and Nisa.

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Speaker 3: B basically, you know, for us, being number three, being

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Speaker 3: number four, being number two is not an objective a person.

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Speaker 3: Our key objective is to provide to our customers with

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Speaker 3: the best product, the best technology, which is safe, the

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Speaker 3: best customer experience. The industry today is more competitive that

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Speaker 3: has been in the past.

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Speaker 4: Already. A few years back.

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Speaker 3: There were a lot of talks and a lot of

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Speaker 3: commory about consolidation as a one potential solution to maintain

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Speaker 3: profitable operations. And if you look at the number of

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Speaker 3: technologies that we have today and compared to five years ago,

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Speaker 3: you have IV and you have much more hybrid, you

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Speaker 3: have pluging hybrids, you have EiV, you have hydrogen. Well,

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Speaker 3: it is really difficult for a single OEM.

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Speaker 4: To be able to invest everywhere.

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Speaker 3: So I think we need to be smart in where

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Speaker 3: we invest our money. But at the same time, you

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Speaker 3: cannot lose the opportunity to get access to the best

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Speaker 3: available and future technology by just doing the things by yourself.

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Speaker 3: So I think the concept of the ecosystem and the

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Speaker 3: partnerships we will utilize in addition to the internal development

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Speaker 3: of our own capabilities and technologies, I think we believe

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Speaker 3: that this is the winning proposition, despite the fact that

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Speaker 3: we are the third largest OEM.

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Speaker 2: What's your strategy for the China market, because the legacy

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Speaker 2: overseas carmakers are struggling, whether it's GM or others, they

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Speaker 2: are losing money after seeing China as the cash cow.

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Speaker 2: It's changed dynamic dramatically. You have a partnership with Baic Motor.

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Speaker 2: I understand you're going to inject some one point one

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Speaker 2: billion dollars into the China JV. Is this money well

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Speaker 2: spent in a market that is losing market share? All

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Speaker 2: the players are losing market share, the foreign carmakers, we.

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Speaker 3: Have also been impacted very severely by the situation in

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Speaker 3: the Chinese market, and at the moment we are trying

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Speaker 3: to readjust our position in the market so we can

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Speaker 3: make it a business unit which is profitable, which is

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Speaker 3: worthwhile having. But let me tell you that being in

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Speaker 3: China it's also a very good way to experience and

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Speaker 3: to appreciate how to improve and also being humble looking

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Speaker 3: at how competitors are operating in the market to do

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Speaker 3: a better job right And then to me the fact

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Speaker 3: that we are one of the audiences who have decided

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Speaker 3: to state a course and invest and grow with our partner,

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Speaker 3: which is a great partner, begin Auto.

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Speaker 4: We have a very great relationship with.

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Speaker 3: I think it shows our commitment to our customers in

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Speaker 3: China and also in other markets.

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Speaker 2: But can you leverage it as an export base at

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Speaker 2: a time of threatened and realized terraffs?

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Speaker 3: I think so, provided we get the right scale to

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Speaker 3: be competitive, it could be for certain markets. But we

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Speaker 3: also have to improve in the domestic market by having

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Speaker 3: the right products that the Chinese consumers like, by having

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Speaker 3: the right position in the right distribution, and definitely the

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Speaker 3: competitiveness in terms of a price that the Chinese consumer

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Speaker 3: is looking at.

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Speaker 2: How can you compete against a company like BYD, which

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Speaker 2: is vertically integrated. It i think makes its own batteries

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Speaker 2: about eighty percent of its own batteries. It has the scale.

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Speaker 2: I mean a lot of these car makers are not profitable,

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Speaker 2: and that's a political issue as well. It's causing political

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Speaker 2: waves abroad. But how do you compete on price and

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Speaker 2: scale in a market that is dominated by the local players.

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Speaker 4: Well, we are competing the facto.

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Speaker 3: One thing is to compete, It depends on the market

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Speaker 3: position and well thing is to compete in China itself

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Speaker 3: where at the moment the local Chinese are doing a

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Speaker 3: better job than basically anybody else in other markets fairly

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Speaker 3: though nobody really knows. But we do our best within

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Speaker 3: the rules always. But I would say in other markets

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Speaker 3: like Europe, well we have them as a competitor and

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Speaker 3: we do better than them. You go, for example Brazil

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Speaker 3: Latin American markets, we just finished the year we became

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Speaker 3: number four when the Chinese have sold more cars in

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Speaker 3: Brazil than ever in the history. So we are the

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Speaker 3: competing with them, and that they are not a shortcuts,

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Speaker 3: They are not tricks that you can apply. So you

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Speaker 3: need to be very consistent in terms of having the

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Speaker 3: right economies of scale, having a good quality production capabilities

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Speaker 3: at good cost.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk about the local situation here right now. Obviously

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Speaker 2: there's some political unrest here in South Korea with President

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Speaker 2: un under fire has been impeached. There's a lot of

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Speaker 2: political uncertainty right now in the presidential office. How is

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Speaker 2: that potentially going to impact consumer sentiment and as well,

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Speaker 2: it's hit the one quite a bit.

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Speaker 3: First of all, well, I'm not in the politics in

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Speaker 3: any market, and also not in Korea. We're watching carefully obviously,

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Speaker 3: and then we're focusing on our business, where we have

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Speaker 3: not seen any impact so far. We continue to focus

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Speaker 3: on delivering the customer promise and then hopefully this will

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Speaker 3: be clear very soon. Meanwhile, we focus in every single

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Speaker 3: market doing our very best for our consumers.

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Speaker 1: That was Hyundai CEO Jose Muno speaking with Bloomberg's Steven

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Speaker 1: Engel