HYUNDAI TRANSYS to lead future mobility solutions market

HYUNDAI TRANSYS, a creative leader of future mobility innovation, is spurring to enhance its global competitiveness by “enhancing its key technologies” and “revamping its business structure to be future-oriented” in 2023 in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of its merger and establishment. In 2019, HYUNDAI TRANSYS was launched by merging HYUNDAI DYMOS and HYUNDAI POWERTECH as one company producing vehicle powertrains and seats as vital components. It is the only company worldwide equipped with a full product lineup of transmissions for vehicles, including automatic, manual, double clutch, continuously variable, and hybrid. As for vehicle seats, it currently produces wide-ranging customized seats for not only small sedans and SUVs but also EVs and PBVs. Its three main strategies drawn up when the company was launched were ▲ securing the technological competency for future mobility (Creative Technology), ▲ enhancing business efficiency and creating value (Creative Value), and ▲ expanding global sales for growth (Creative Growth). It has since made noteworthy achievements. Its revenue, which stood at KRW 7.7 trillion when the company was launched in 2019, grew 30% and surpassed KRW 10 trillion in 2022. As it was an achievement made amid the global economic stagnation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was all the more meaningful. According to Automotive News, a global media outlet specializing in automobiles that evaluates automotive component companies’ competitiveness, the company ranked 32nd (2nd in Korea) among the “2022 Top Suppliers” announced in the same year.The rankings are determined based on the previous year’s revenue reached by global component companies selling components to automakers. HYUNDAI TRANSYS is leaping forward to lead the future mobility solutions market beyond growing externally.

■ Securing unique technological competency in the powertrain field, the heart of all means of transportation
In line with the eco-friendly era, the company provides electrified powertrain solutions used in EVs, HEVs, and PHEVs, among others. The “e-Powertrain,” a 3-in-1 EV drive system of HYUNDAI TRANSYS uniting motor, inverter, and reduction gear, is the ultimate integration of its electrified technologies. Because the system is small and light, it makes it easy to design vehicles and is highly cost competitive in that it can reduce the sales price of EVs. In addition, it has improved the cooling design for maximum motor system efficiency. The ”Disconnector Actuator System (DAS)” that HYUNDAI TRANSYS developed for the first time globally for EVs and is mounted on Hyundai Motor Company’s “IONIC 5,” is a device that separates and connects the motor and driving shaft according to the driving situation for free switching between two-wheel-drive (2WD) and all-wheel-drive (AWD). The system reduces unnecessary EV power loss and can enhance power efficiency by up to 8% for improved driving efficiency. The DAS technology was awarded the “IR52 Jang Young-shil Award” for the 44th week of 2022, and it is a key technology to lead the electrification era. “e-square Automatic Transmission (e²AT),” a next-generation hybrid driving system, is a brand HYUNDAI TRANSYS independently developed by merging two electric motors and automatic transmission. With two motors, it has improved power performance and fuel efficiency competitiveness.

■ Creating new value with unique seats and expanding vehicle interiors into living spaces
HYUNDAI TRANSYS is also working hard to provide future mobility interior solutions for vehicle seats.By making the seats lighter, it seeks to improve the mileage and is researching the seat movements, features, and shapes from a total interior perspective so that its clients may experience diverse lifestyles. It has entered the global vehicle seat market with ergonomically designed seats with distinct, convenient features, sophisticated design, and eco-friendly technology. As a result, it obtained an order for EV seats worth KRW 1 trillion in 2019 from “RIVIAN,” a US EV company. It plans to expand the global sales of its seats for EVs and self-driving cars based on its accumulated knowledge and technological competency. Jointly with Hyundai Motor Company and TSA, it also developed the “Seat Ergo Motion System,” for which it received the IR52 Jang Young-shil Award for the 36th week of 2022 and applied it to Genesis and K9 cars, among others. The seat system maximizes passenger and driver comfort. Notably, seven air pockets were applied inside the seats to maintain an optimal driving posture for each driving mode. The company is equally actively developing sustainable seats. It showcased “future mobility self-driving concept seats made of eco-friendly materials” at Lineapelle (February), an international leather exhibition, and Milan Design Week (June) in 2022. It used waste leather to make eco-friendly recycled leather and a unique processing technique of weaving leftover leather pieces to show the sustainable design philosophy and future technology direction unique to HYUNDAI TRANSYS.

■ Preparing the bridgehead to compete against global automakers
HYUNDAI TRANSYS operates 33 plants and offices in 11 countries worldwide to quickly respond to the demands of global automakers and continuously expand its revenue. It researches, develops, and produces powertrains and seats in Georgia, Illinois, and Alabama in the United States and Monterrey in Mexico, among others. In particular, its sales office in Michigan, the heart of US automakers, including EVs, plays the role of a bridgehead for attacking the North American market. There, it focuses all its energies on obtaining orders for electrification products from North American automakers. HYUNDAI TRANSYS is also targeting the European eco-friendly vehicle market based on its “Europe Technical Center” in Germany. It plans to enhance the competitiveness of its key components for eco-friendly vehicles in the European market by providing electrified powertrain solutions to European automakers. The powertrain business has a high entry barrier by nature, and once contracts for large-scale supplies are forged with automakers, they lead to stable partnerships. Obtaining orders for internal combustion engine powertrains can positively impact the supply of electrification products such as powertrains for HEVs and driving systems for EVs.

“HYUNDAI TRANSYS has ceaselessly worked hard to transform into a mobility solution company from an automotive components company over the last four years … We will consider 2023 as the first year of our leap forward into a company that leads the future mobility market and focus more on strengthening substantial management and expanding our new business capacities, such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), PBV, and robotics,” said President Yeo Su-dong regarding the company’s aspiration during his 2023 New Year’s address.