Hyundai's Muñoz beats Musk, Trump to MotorTrend's 2025 Person of the Year

Home > Business > Industry

Hyundai's Muñoz beats Musk, Trump to MotorTrend's 2025 Person of the Year

Published: 28 Feb. 2025, 14:05

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

José Muñoz, the first foreign CEO to head Hyundai Motor, was named Person of the Year in MotorTrend's 2025 Power List. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Hyundai Motor CEO José Muñoz beat Tesla's Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump to be named Person of the Year in MotorTrend’s 2023 Power List on Thursday.

Muñoz, the first foreign CEO to lead Hyundai, follows the lead of Euisun Chung, the group's executive chair, who won the accolade in 2023. Muñoz ranked 15th in 2024.

MotorTrend, a U.S. automobile magazine, ranks the 50 most influential people in the global automotive industry in its Power List each year.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk ranked second, while Trump came in third, followed by General Motors CEO Mary Barra at fourth. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang came in at No. 7.

"The automotive conglomerate’s impressive performance with an ongoing upward trajectory cements Muñoz on top of our Power List," MotorTrend said. "Muñoz has been a driving force, leading Hyundai through years of record growth in North American sales, market share, revenue and profitability."

A U.S. citizen born in Spain, Muñoz is the architect behind Hyundai’s speedy growth in global markets, rising to become the No. 3 automaker as it beat General Motors and Stellantis. He is a veteran auto expert with experience working at major global brands including Toyota Motor and Nissan.

With Muñoz joining as COO in 2019, Hyundai's sales in North America skyrocketed 170 percent to 40.8 trillion won ($27.8 billion) in 2023 from 2018, swinging to a net profit of 2.8 trillion won from a 330 billion won net loss.

Its vehicle sales in terms of units rose 30 percent to 870,000 during the same period.

In 2025's list, Hyundai's Chung ranked 12th, while head of Hyundai and Genesis design Lee Sang-yup came in at 18th, Hyundai Motor America Chief Operating Officer Claudia Marquez was 20th, Hyundai's Chief Creative Officer Luc Donckerwolke reached 29th and Kia's design head, Karim Habib, placed 35th.

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]