A new technical centre proposed for Australia could play an important role in developing Hyundai Motor Group’s next generation of hybrid and battery electric vehicles for remote, rugged and off-road driving.
The impetus for the centre has been boosted by Kia Australia’s deep involvement in the development of the new Kia Tasman ute.
But all three HMG brands – Kia, Hyundai and niche luxury Genesis – would have access to the new research and development base.
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The centre, which would be headquartered in Sydney, was originally the brainchild of Kia Australia management and a proposal has gone from there up the management chain to global HQ in South Korea,
While the exact nature of the work the centre would do hasn’t been publicly detailed, a focus on durability, rough road, off-road and 4×4 capabilities seem certain to be part of its scope.
Development of V2G (Vehicle 2 Grid) capability has been mooted as another core capability of the centre. HMG EVs currently have V2L (Vehicle to Load) but not V2G, which is harder to develop.
Another key responsibility would be training of staff for the Asia-Pacific region.
An Australian tech centre would also help Kia and Hyundai market themselves as local brands. Both are on sales drives to cement themselves among the country’s top-selling brands.
Intrinsic to those sales ambitions are a strong move into utes and 4×4 vehicles. Kia has just launched the Tasman diesel ute, and a seven-seat SUV spin-off (see opening image) is expected to follow.
HMG’s new 2.5-litre petrol-electric hybrid powertrain is soon expected to become available for the Tasman (and the wagon) with pure electric powertrains to follow as Australia’s NVES CO2 regulations tighten later in the decade.
Hyundai Australia has promised a dual cab ute before the end of the decade. It is almost certain to launch with an electrified powertrain, eschewing diesel all together.
Meanwhile, Genesis has shown off an electrified concept called the X Gran Equator that previews a serious Range Rover-rivalling off-roader.
Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith described the technical centre as a “medium term” (three-to-five-year) ambition.
“The team came together to come up with ideas about what requirements we would need to develop the business in Australia. That [technical centre] was one of them.”
“Because we are in Asia-Pacific we have got a monster responsibility from a volume point of view,” Meredith said. “We are nearly 50 per cent of the total volume out of Asia-Pacific.
“So we have a responsibility there and one of the responsibilities is to bring along the distributors that work in the Asia-Pacific, because there are only ourselves and a few others that are fully-owned subsidiaries.
“For us to really develop the brand in the Asia-Pacific we need a centre of excellence from a technical point of view to drag that long.
“So that’s one of our medium term goals to get that done.”
The HMG plan has some parallels with Toyota, which classifies Australia as a centre of excellence for its development and validation of 4×4 models such as LandCruiser, Prado and HiLux.
It has a base at the Anglesea proving ground for vehicle testing, as well as a facility within Toyota’s Altona campus in Melbourne.
The Chinese manufacturer GWM has also recently announced it has become a permanent resident at the Lang Lang proving ground in Victoria as part of its plan to upgrade the dynamics of its vehicles locally.
But all these efforts pale into significance compared to Ford, which has the biggest design and engineering footprint in Australia as the homeroom for the T6 platform and the Ranger ute and Everest SUV.
Kia Australia has had a policy of ride, handling and steering localisation which it has applied to virtually all new models sold in Australia since 2010. Hyundai rolled back a similar program a few years ago.
Both Kia and Hyundai also conduct hot weather testing on future models in Australia.
But the Tasman program has taken the co-operation between Kia Australia with the factory in South Korea to a whole new level.
“We learned every single nuance of the departments that are within [HMG’s] Namyang technical centre,” explained Kia Australia product planning general manager Roland Rivero.
“There are actually numerous departments within Namyang we’d never had to work that closely with before. We’d never had to do water wading, we’d never had to do side-by-side accessory development.
“That interaction across a broader scope of the Namyang R&D team was very refreshing. And each of those research groups both sides of the fence learned something new.
“We were mucking around with competitor cars, we were mucking around with prototypes and there were learnings from both sides of the fence.”
