Hyundai, Kia to invest $13.6M in composite materials firm Kolon Spaceworks
Published: 03 Feb. 2025, 16:10
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- SARAH CHEA
- [email protected]
![Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung speaks during a 2025 New Year Event held Jan. 6 at Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang in Goyang, Gyeonggi. [HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/03/e0f7d083-e15a-4196-abec-833f228bfdfe.jpg)
Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung speaks during a 2025 New Year Event held Jan. 6 at Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang in Goyang, Gyeonggi. [HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP]
Hyundai Motor and Kia will jointly invest 20 billion won ($13.6 million) in Kolon Spaceworks, a composite materials company, in an effort to comply with Europe's tightened regulations on clean components in cars.
Under the deal announced Monday, the two Korean automakers will now own 11 percent of Kolon Spaceworks. Hyundai will invest 12 billion won, while Kia will contribute 8 billion won.
Kolon Spaceworks specializes in producing composite materials for automobiles and aircraft. The new composite material mixes carbon fiber and fiber glass with polymer materials, resulting in a high-strength but lightweight product.
The two will co-develop materials for hydrogen storage vessels and battery housing using recycled materials in order to "meet the End-of-Life Vehicles [ELV] policies of the European Union [EU]," Hyundai said in a statement.
Under the EU's guidelines, starting from 2030, at least 25 percent of the plastic used to build a new vehicle must be recycled, with 25 percent of that coming from recycled ELVs.
Hyundai and Kia aim to strengthen the paintless composite molding technology currently applied to Hyundai's ST1 platform for commercial EVs.
"With the paradigm shift in the automobile industry, the application of environmentally-friendly materials is expanding fast," said Yang Heui-won, president of Hyundai and Kia's R&D Division. "We anticipate that through this partnership with Kolon, we can preemptively develop composite materials for automobiles and enhance our business competition through technological innovation."
BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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