Hyundai has made a significant investment of nearly $1 billion in Motional, an autonomous vehicle startup. As part of this deal, Hyundai has acquired a majority stake in Motional by directly investing $475 million and purchasing 11% of Aptiv’s common equity interest in Motional for an additional $448 million. This strategic move gives Hyundai an 85% controlling interest in the company, while Aptiv’s ownership reduces to 15%.
Motional, originally founded as nuTonomy in 2013, was acquired by Delphi for $400 million and later became part of the Aptiv unit. In 2019, Hyundai and Aptiv formed a $4 billion joint venture to establish Motional. Hyundai’s increased investment in Motional highlights its commitment to advancing autonomous driving technology and its confidence in the company’s potential.
Motional’s business model involves partnering with ride-hailing platforms like Uber, Lyft, and Via to provide autonomous ride services. The company has been testing its autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in various cities, including Boston, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Singapore. Its goal is to launch a commercial robotaxi service using driverless Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles by 2024. To further its development, Motional has collaborated with Hyundai to co-develop production-ready versions of the Ioniq 5 robotaxi at Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore (HMGICS). The company also announced plans to work with Kia on a next-generation vehicle for commercial operations later this decade.
The autonomous driving industry remains highly competitive, with players like Waymo, Cruise, and Tesla making significant strides. Waymo continues to expand its driverless robotaxi service in multiple cities, while Cruise focuses on mapping and slowly reintroducing its vehicles onto public roads after an incident in 2023. Tesla, under the leadership of Elon Musk, has also prioritized autonomous driving, aiming to deliver a robotaxi by August 2024.
Motional faces challenges in the competitive landscape and the need to charge for rides or deliveries to achieve commercial success. Despite these challenges, Hyundai’s substantial investment demonstrates its belief in Motional’s technology and vision for the future of autonomous transportation.
