Hyundai Mobis exceeds $770 bn in R&D investment in 2023

South Korea's car parts maker Hyundai Mobis is turning into a software-oriented mobility company by investing over 1 trillion won ($772.3 million) in R&D for the third consecutive year.

The company's continued raising of R&D investment has led to more applications for new patents and orders for core components, resulting in record-high performance every year.

Hyundai Mobis on Thursday said it published its Sustainability Report 2023 with this content. Since 2010, the annual report shares with shareholders the company's sustainable management performance in fields like economy, society and the environment.

This year's edition contains the New Mobis vision that the company promotes as a mid- to long-term business strategy. The goal is to transform Hyundai Mobis' model to achieve sustainable growth by securing core capabilities in semiconductors and software, two essential elements of future mobility.

To this end, the company announced its focus on expanding R&D, investment in which exceeded 1 trillion won for the first time in 2020 at 1.1 trillion won. The figure has kept rising over the past three years, with last year seeing 1.3 trillion won.

Hyundai Mobis' expansion of R&D investment has led to the addition of intellectual property rights, the core of the transformation toward future mobility, and more orders for key parts. Last year, the number of new patent applications rose 41% and that of patent holdings grew 61% from 2021.

Among the company's new patents, those related to future technologies like self-driving and connectivity numbered 806 and those related to eco-friendliness such as electrification and fuel cells accounted for 210. Combined, they comprised over 30% of the new patents.

Orders for core parts used in future growth sectors like electrification and electric vehicles are also rising. Competitiveness secured in each field is naturally expected to boost profitability-based management.

The volume of Hyundai Mobis' orders for core parts shot up from $1.7 billion in 2020 to $2.5 billion in 2021 and $4.6 billion last year. This year's goal of $5.3 billion is up over 10% from the previous year.

Write to Sungsu Bae at baebae@hankyung.com