Three Hyundai Motor Group In-house Ventures Spin Off After 9 Months

Hyundai Motor Group announced on the 29th that three in-house startups will spin off within nine months.

The companies spinning off this time are Pit-in, Made, and EvaCycle. Pit-in provides a refurbished battery subscription service using battery replacement technology for commercial electric vehicles such as taxis. Since commercial vehicles have long driving distances and hours, battery management is crucial. Considering this, the service replaces existing batteries with refurbished batteries to enable longer vehicle operation. They also plan to offer insurance for commercial electric vehicle batteries and ultra-fast chargers.

Made manufactures silicon carbide parts using 3D printing. Silicon carbide requires significant time and cost to process. By utilizing the company's developed additive 3D printing method, the process is simpler and less costly compared to traditional subtractive machining methods.

EvaCycle is engaged in recycling business that extracts black powder containing valuable metals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt from used batteries. The extraction of black powder has slow technology development related to equipment and processes and low profitability, resulting in few participating companies. This company designed and built the main equipment themselves. Hyundai Motor Group explained that EvaCycle has been evaluated to reduce costs, power consumption, and production time by more than 50% compared to existing methods.

Hyundai Motor Group Headquarters, Seocho-gu, Seoul / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Hyundai Motor Group has operated an in-house startup incubation program since 2000. So far, 76 teams have been selected, and 33 companies have spun off as of this year. Selected teams receive up to 300 million KRW in development funds. After a one-year period of product/service development and commercialization, they are evaluated for spin-off or in-house commercialization. There is also an opportunity to rejoin the company within three years after spinning off.

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