Hyundai Motor is modifying its product portfolio next year with the introduction of several new SUVs while looking even farther out to the introduction of its first urban air taxis toward the end of the decade, the company’s top U.S. executive said.
“We are all-in on autonomous vehicles,” and also electric vehicles, said Jose Munoz, president, and CEO and Hyundai North America, at an Automotive Press Association teleconference.
His statements come at a time when investment in robotaxis has reduced even as the coronavirus crisis has spurred interest in personally-owned vehicles, especially trucks and SUVs.
Hyundai hopes to tap that interest in 2021 with the all-new Santa Cruz, a compact utility vehicle with a pickup bed, and the Ioniq 5 crossover, the first in a series of new all-electric models.
Early next year, the redesigned Tucson compact crossover goes into production at Hyundai’s Montgomery, Alabama plant, which also will start building the Santa Cruz in late spring as part of a $410 million investment for expansion.
Munoz said Hyundai will work with the Joe Biden administration, for developing infrastructure to support battery-electric and hydrogen-electric vehicles.
He seemed most excited by automaker’s work with Motional – its $4 billion self-driving technology joint venture with Aptiv PLC – and its partnership with Uber Technologies on urban air taxis, which Munoz predicted would be in operation at such significant U.S. airports as LAX in Los Angeles and JFK in New York “by 2028, maybe earlier.”
The automaker is already developing “flying devices” powered by electric motors and batteries that are able to transport five to six passengers from highly congested urban and suburban centers to those airports, Munoz said.
He said he sees a lot of opportunities in autonomous vehicles and air taxis, he said.
