Hyundai Mobis to power all plants with 100% renewable energy by 2040

Automobile companies’ carbon-neutral activities often result in developing and producing eco-friendly vehicles such as electric vehicles and hydrogen cars.

However, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group goes a step further.

It not only strengthens the use of green steel or eco-friendly interior materials that reduce carbon emissions but also plans to use renewable energy throughout the manufacturing process.

Hyundai Mobis Co., the auto parts making unit of Hyundai Motor Group, said its operations around the world will use renewable energy for 65% of its electricity needs by 2030, and all of its electricity needs by 2040.

This goal is a decade earlier than the global 2050 standard required by the RE100 initiative.

Hyundai Mobis, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., in April joined the global carbon-free initiative as part of its objective to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

RE100 INITIATIVE

The RE100 or Renewable Energy 100 initiative was first launched by British non-profit organization The Climate Group in 2014, and currently has more than 260 member companies around the globe, including Google, Apple, Ikea and General Motors.

The campaign, which targets companies that use more than 100 GWh per year, prompts them to transition to using 100% renewable energy.

Korea’s big conglomerates, including LG, SK and Hanwha, have also declared their carbon-free vows to comply with the government’s initiative to introduce environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Hyundai Mobis said its Slovak factory already uses only renewable energy and plans to expand it to other global production bases via ways including a direct purchase of renewable energy from power generation companies or purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs).

In its 2045 Carbon Neutral Roadmap, released recently, the company said it aims to reduce carbon emissions by 30% compared to 2019 in 2030.

The company said it plans to achieve net-zero emissions in its entire supply chain by 2045.

As part of such efforts, its plant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province was named a zero-waste landfill workplace, Korea’s first as an auto industry company, in June.

The company aims to turn its entire operations into a zero-waste landfill workplace by 2030.

Its 2022 Sustainability Report showed about 30% of its 1,000 newly acquired future mobility-related patents in 2021 concerns eco-friendly technology.

“Sustainable growth based on carbon neutrality is crucial to our future as a carmaker. We will achieve our carbon-free goal through aggressive investments,” said Kim Young-bin, vice president and head of the company’s planning division.

Write to Han-Shin Park at phs@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.