Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Hyundai the automaker, is investing billions of dollars in US production,
Speaker 2: including it's Georgia EV hub, and looking to expand into
Speaker 2: pickup trucks and big SUV's, core US segments that have
Speaker 2: long been dominated by Ford, GM and Toyota. Joining us
Speaker 2: now at the desk is Hondai's CEO, Jose Munios. He's
Speaker 2: here for the New York Auto Show, and Jose appreciate
Speaker 2: you joining us.
Speaker 3: I was at the Auto Show yesterday.
Speaker 2: I got to see the Boulder, which is your concept
Speaker 2: large SUV looks fantastic, and I had thought, you know,
Speaker 2: it must be so difficult to come in and compete
Speaker 2: in this space because the US automakers have long dominated
Speaker 2: because of the Chicken tax. But you'll be building I
Speaker 2: guess if you do go that direction, you'll be building
Speaker 2: it here.
Speaker 3: That is the plan.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me, Matt always supplicit to visit
Speaker 4: you well. As you know, we have made a big
Speaker 4: comitment to invest twenty six billion dollars in the next
Speaker 4: four years. And this is after twenty zero point four
Speaker 4: billion dollars that we have invested in the last four
Speaker 4: years that we've been in the country that we celebrated
Speaker 4: last year. As part of this commitment, we want to
Speaker 4: increase our capacity in the US to one point two
Speaker 4: million from eight hundred to nine hundred thousand today, and
Speaker 4: then we want to increase our supply chain, including a
Speaker 4: steel meal in Louisiana, and then additional investments in technology
Speaker 4: like robotics, AI, data centers, so on and so forth.
Speaker 4: But the most important that we have announced during the
Speaker 4: New York Show last week is that we're going to
Speaker 4: introduce in the market fifty eight new products. Thirty six
Speaker 4: are going to be one hundred products, and twenty two
Speaker 4: they're going to be Genesis and then through the next
Speaker 4: four years. And then the most important for us was
Speaker 4: the introduction of the Boulder concept because when you look
Speaker 4: at the behavior and the performance of the brand in America,
Speaker 4: I think we do pretty much a good job. So
Speaker 4: we just ended Q one with an all time record.
Speaker 4: We had the twenty twenty five over achieving one million
Speaker 4: wholesales for the first time ever, and we're thinking how
Speaker 4: we can continue to grow and link this to our
Speaker 4: commitment to America for America, and we thought that the
Speaker 4: only segments where we are not competing today.
Speaker 3: Are the Body on frame.
Speaker 4: We got a fantastic review by the press, so thank
Speaker 4: you Matt. Everybody loved the designs. I can tell you
Speaker 4: that the reality is going to be better than that.
Speaker 4: Our designers never disappointed us.
Speaker 2: I will tell viewers who don't know. Body on frame
Speaker 2: means it's a much more robust vehicle. That's a truck
Speaker 2: right as opposed to the unibody cars.
Speaker 3: And you need that in.
Speaker 2: This region because of the potholes and broken down roads
Speaker 2: that take a beating. But it's one that has long
Speaker 2: been dominated by US players because of this tax. We
Speaker 2: have a twenty five percent tariff on light duty trucks
Speaker 2: built overseas that come in here. Where would you build
Speaker 2: such a body on frame vehicle?
Speaker 3: Definitely here in America.
Speaker 4: These would be part of our strategy to be localized,
Speaker 4: to be vertically integrated, part of the twenty six billion dollars,
Speaker 4: So we want to make it here with our supplier
Speaker 4: base and then to the taste of the American consumer.
Speaker 1: These, though, I mean, are very long term plans that
Speaker 1: you've put in place, so I'm assuming short term fluctuations
Speaker 1: and consumer behavior isn't going to change that. But are
Speaker 1: you seeing changes in consumer behavior now having to deal
Speaker 1: here in the US with gasoline above four dollars a barrel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we see that all the time.
Speaker 4: So our strategy is being different to other OEMs in
Speaker 4: the sense that we want to offer the customers what
Speaker 4: they want when they want it, and as such we
Speaker 4: not only invest on evs but also on hybrid We're
Speaker 4: going to start producing hybrids this year in our hm
Speaker 4: A plant in Savannah, and we have also announced that
Speaker 4: we will introduce er EV extended range EVS next year
Speaker 4: in the country as well.
Speaker 3: So that's how.
Speaker 4: We came to the conclusion that you know, if consumers
Speaker 4: want more evs, we have to produce more evs. They
Speaker 4: want more hybrids, we have to produce more more hybrids.
Speaker 4: If they want, for example, both the type of vehicles,
Speaker 4: we will. But to your question, we have seen a
Speaker 4: significant change in the dynamics. So for example, in the
Speaker 4: month of March, we've seen an increase of EV sales
Speaker 4: of about forty percent compared to February. So definitely, when
Speaker 4: the American consumer sees an increase in fuel prices, they
Speaker 4: try to move to solutions which are more friendly in
Speaker 4: terms of costs right, especially in states like California.
Speaker 2: We saw today that this administration isn't going to give
Speaker 2: any help on aluminum and steel tariffs to automakers that
Speaker 2: produce here. Are you penalized to some extent for producing
Speaker 2: a car here because if you made it in Korea,
Speaker 2: you might get just a fifteen percent flat tax.
Speaker 3: And when you build a car here.
Speaker 2: You got to pay the fifty percent on aluminum, fifty
Speaker 2: percent teriffs on steel, You got to pay the tariffs
Speaker 2: on all of the components that come together. And Ford
Speaker 2: says they end up actually paying more to build a
Speaker 2: comparable vehicle than you do when you make it in
Speaker 2: South Korea.
Speaker 4: Well, that's a very good point that that's why in
Speaker 4: our case the strata is very simple localization. And that's
Speaker 4: why we are going to produce this boulder with steel
Speaker 4: made in America, so full integration, the steel, the logistics,
Speaker 4: the components, the manufacturing, the workers. Everything is going to
Speaker 4: be made in America, including the steel.
Speaker 2: I have to ask you about Magma, which is your
Speaker 2: answer to AMG or BMW's m I saw the wing
Speaker 2: back concept yesterday, which was fantastic. I know you're going
Speaker 2: to race at Lamar, which is increasingly becoming like the
Speaker 2: Davos of car manufacturers. Can you really compete against BMW?
Speaker 2: Can you compete against Mercedes? Can you compete against Audi
Speaker 2: with that vehicle here, with that brand here.
Speaker 3: In America without a doubt.
Speaker 4: So last year we saw an old time breaker eighty
Speaker 4: two thousand Genesis in this market, and then last year
Speaker 4: we also achieved our one millions Genesis sales, so we've
Speaker 4: been the fastest growing luxury OEM globally because we did
Speaker 4: that in only nine years and six months, so faster
Speaker 4: than Tesla, faster than other luxury competitors, and definitely as
Speaker 4: part of the evolution as a next frontier for our
Speaker 4: luxury brand, we wanted to get into the competition, so
Speaker 4: the War Endurance Championship, so you have an open invitation
Speaker 4: to be able to join us in in Leman, and then.
Speaker 3: It needs to be real.
Speaker 4: That's why we came up with the Macmam Orange and
Speaker 4: the Macmac concept, which if you saw the numbers, a
Speaker 4: GV sixty gives you a standard mode more than six
Speaker 4: hundred horsepower, but if you push the boost model, so
Speaker 4: you're gonna get to six hundred and fifty horsepower for
Speaker 4: about fifteen seconds. So this is the Bloomberg Boost or
Speaker 4: the Matt Bust in July three point four seconds to
Speaker 4: make it two one hundred miles?
Speaker 3: Is that one next?
Speaker 4: That's upon next, so you can you can try. So
Speaker 4: we're gonna be credible contender and it's going to be
Speaker 4: real performing all right.
Speaker 3: Jose, great having it here.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for joining us, and I look forward
Speaker 2: to seeing you on the track at Lamont as well.
Speaker 2: Jose Munios there the CEO of Hyundai and Genesis.
Speaker 3: Be sure to listen to Hot Pursuit.
Speaker 2: By the way, that's my autos podcast with Hannah Elliott.
Speaker 2: And you saw some of the video of me there
Speaker 2: at the car show with Christina Christina Raffini, because Bloomberg
Speaker 2: this weekend is going to show a big piece about
Speaker 2: what we saw and did at the New York International
Speaker 2: Auto Show and it was a lot of fun.