Hyundai Steel supplies high-strength steel for Genesis G80 EV, G90

Hyundai Steel Co. is supplying its newly developed ultra-high-strength steel sheets for car bodies to Hyundai Motor Co. for its electric vehicles and luxury cars sold under the premium Genesis brand.

Hyundai Steel, South Korea’s second-largest steelmaker, said on Thursday it has begun mass production of the steel plates, dubbed 1.8 GPa premium hot stamping steel, at its plant in Yesan, South Chungcheong Province.

GPa, short for gigapascal, is a unit that measures the compressive strength and tensile strength of a material. One GPa refers to the endurance of a load of 100 kg or more on a one-square-millimeter area.

The super-strong steel, which has a higher crack resistance and is lighter in weight than other car body steel plates, is used in premium cars for electric vehicle battery cases, bumpers and roof side reinforcements.

Hyundai Steel jointly developed high-strength steel with Hyundai Motor’s Namyang Research Center for Basic Materials.

The steelmaker said its latest product’s tensile strength has improved 20%, with its weight slashed by 20% compared with its previous 1.5 GPa hot stamping steel.

USED IN ELECTRIFIED G80, ALL-NEW G90

Hyundai Steel said the newly developed steel will be used for Hyundai Motor’s Genesis Electrified G80 (G80 EV) and the new G90 sedan.

The Electrified G80 is the first Genesis electric model launched in July last year.

The all-new Genesis G90, launched last December, is Hyundai Motor’s first redesigned model of the car in three years, following a partial facelift in 2018.

Hyundai Steel began supplying the 1.8 GPa stamping steel on a test basis last year, and from this year plans to supply 145,000 units a year, which can be used for about 30,000 electric vehicles.

The company operates 22 hot stamping facilities at its Yesan plant and two factories in Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province.

With a combined annual production capacity of 58 million sheets, Hyundai Steel is Korea’s largest hot stamping steelmaker and the world’s third-largest.

Analysts expect the hot stamping steel market to grow significantly in the coming years on strong demand from automakers for lighter and stronger EVs.

Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.