Hyundai named 33rd on TIME's best companies list, 4th highest ranking among carmakers

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Hyundai named 33rd on TIME's best companies list, 4th highest ranking among carmakers

Published: 20 Oct. 2025, 11:59 Updated: 21 Oct. 2025, 12:32

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Euisun Chung, executive chair of Hyundai Motor Group, appears on stage at a completion ceremony for the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in the city of Savannah of the U.S. state of Georgia in this photo provided by the group on March 27. [YONHAP]

Hyundai Motor ranked 33rd on TIME Magazine’s list of the World’s Best Companies of 2025, becoming the only Korean firm to be included in the top 100.

The ranking, which measures employee satisfaction, revenue growth and sustainability transparency, showed that Hyundai was the fourth highest among all carmakers, after Volkswagen Group at seventh, Ford Motor at 13th and General Motors at 20th.

Hyundai outperformed Japan’s Toyota Motor, which ranked 48th, securing the highest position among Asian automakers. The company climbed 159 spots from 192nd in 2024.

Nvidia claimed the top spot, followed by Microsoft in second place — a reflection of the growing importance of AI capabilities as a core indicator of corporate value and competitiveness.

Since 2023, TIME has partnered with Statista, a German data platform, to identify the world’s top 1,000 companies delivering outstanding performance based on three equally weighted criteria: employee satisfaction derived from survey responses from over 200,000 participants worldwide; corporate growth measured using Statista’s revenue database over the past three years; and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores compiled by Statista.

“Hyundai’s sharp rise in the rankings is attributed to strong global employee satisfaction, sustained revenue growth and continued efforts in ESG initiatives, including carbon reduction and human rights policies,” the company said in a statement. “It is expected to bolster investor confidence and contribute to a positive perception of the brand."

In Hyundai’s annual internal employee satisfaction survey, it scored a record-high 79.4 points in 2024 — the highest in the company’s history — where voluntary turnover rate stood at just 0.39 percent.

Revenues also rose 23 percent to 175 trillion won ($123 billion) in 2024 compared to 2022, while operating profit surged about 45 percent to 14.2 trillion, driven by an improved product mix focused on high-value models like SUVs and EVs and robust demand in foreign markets.

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]