SEOUL (Reuters) -Hyundai Motor Group said on Tuesday it planned to invest 24 trillion won ($18.14 billion) in South Korea’s electric vehicle (EV) industry through 2030 in a bid to bolster the EV ecosystem and strengthen its role in the global automotive industry.
The investment plan by the group, which includes Hyundai Motor Co, Kia Corp and Hyundai Mobis co Ltd, came as President Yoon Suk Yeol attended a groundbreaking ceremony for Kia’s first designated electric vehicle plant.
The new plant, the auto group’s first plant in the country in almost three decades, is set to begin production in 2025.
Yoon pledged comprehensive measures to help South Korea’s auto industry better prepare for transformation in the first half of this year, the presidential office said in a statement.
It added that the government would expand tax benefits for domestic EV facility investment for a five-fold boost in production capacity by 2030.
Shares of Kia and Hyundai Motor closed up 4.9% and 3.3%, respectively, versus a rise of 1.4% in the benchmark KOSPI index.
($1=1,323 won)
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Additional reporting by Hyunsu Yim; editing by Jason Neely)
