Hyundai Motor Group has announced its new global strategy to transform all its vehicles into Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) by 2025. Through SDVs, customers have the freedom to remotely upgrade the performance and functionality of their vehicles anywhere at any time.
The company’s plan is to transform the customer experience throughout the vehicle’s entire lifetime and deliver a new era of mobility via constantly evolving software technology. With Hyundai’s mobility and software technology, vehicle functions such as safety, convenience, connectivity, security, and driving performance, can be upgraded via Over-The-Air (OTA) software updates.
Starting in 2023, all newly launched vehicles by the Hyundai Group will be equipped to receive OTA updates. This transformation will apply not just to electric models, but also to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. All of the Group’s vehicle segments sold worldwide will evolve to be SDVs by 2025.
Hyundai Group will also start to offer Feature on Demand (FoD) services next year. This will give customers the ability to select and purchase functions and features that meet their needs and tastes, and the freedom to create vehicles that best match their lifestyles.
New eM and eS platform
During the SDV presentation, Hyundai also announced that its future vehicles will be based on two new platforms – eM and eS. Both platforms will be created under the Group’s Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA) system.
Developed specifically for EVs across all segments, the eM platform will provide a 50% improvement in driving range compared to current EVs. The eM platform is also being developed to support Level 3 or higher autonomous driving technology and OTA software update features.
With B2B demands in mind, the eS platform is developed exclusively for Purpose Built Vehicles (PBVs) as an EV ‘skateboard’. Hyundai will use the eS platform to provide tailor-made solutions for companies operating in the delivery, logistics, and car-hailing sectors.
Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice President of Head of Electronics & Infotainment Development Center, Paul Choo said, “In 2025, Hyundai Motor Group will present vehicles with two platform types: eM, a passenger EV-dedicated platform; and eS, an exclusive platform for Purpose Built Vehicles.”
“These new platforms are evolving under Hyundai Motor Group’s ‘Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA)‘, which will lead to further standardization and modularization of core components of electric vehicles, such as batteries and motors, while offering advantages in sectors additional to electric vehicles.”
The Group’s IMA will facilitate the standardization and modularization of key EV components. By standardizing the batteries and electric motors, for example, which currently vary across each EV model, the Group will flexibly apply common components to each vehicle, thus efficiently expanding its lineup.
Connected Car Operating System (ccOs)
To take the lead in providing transformative global mobility solutions, Hyundai will deploy its ccOs software platform. With know-how from NVIDIA, Hyundai Group is conducting research to apply connected car technology to commercialized mass-produced vehicles.
The Group’s advanced ccOS operating system will support the software technology required to analyze and process data ultra-rapidly, provided by the vast data collection capabilities of technology such as the sensors within the cameras, radars, and LiDARs mounted on the vehicle.
Hyundai Motor Group Senior Vice President and Head of Autonomous Driving Center, Woongjun Jang said, “This year, the Group will apply an advanced Highway Driving Pilot (HDP) on the Genesis G90, which is a Level 3 technology for autonomous driving based on the second-generation integrated controller. The Group is also developing its Remote Parking Pilot (RPP) for Level 3 autonomous driving.”
Hyundai Motor Group will invest 18 trillion won by 2030 in sectors such as the Global Software Center and R&D headquarters to further strengthen software capabilities for SDV development. The Group will also hire some of the world’s best software developers and develop devices and services that prioritize UX to bring new experiences to the mobility market.
Hyundai Motor Group President and Head of R&D Division, Chung Kook Park said, “Today, Hyundai Motor Group has revealed the technology concepts, strategies, and future scenarios related to software-defined vehicles that will underpin the core of future mobility. Our holistic approach will empower Hyundai Motor Group to lead the transformation in the mobility paradigm.”
“As we take these technological innovations from imagination to reality, Hyundai Motor Group will unlock the future potential of the car and open up new possibilities to rewrite the customer experience and deliver a new way of life, abundant with meaning and value.”
Keyword: Performance boost via software is the future for Hyundai cars, thanks to SDV tech