In the New Year, Chung Eui-sun Makes Wide-Ranging Moves in China, the U.S. and India, Focusing on Autos, Hydrogen and AI Robots

[Financial News] Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun is spending ten days from the very beginning of the New Year 2026 racing against the clock, carrying out extensive global management activities across three countries—China, the United States (U.S.) and India.
In China, he met with companies such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) to discuss cooperation in the hydrogen and battery industries. In the U.S., he visited the Consumer Electronics Show 2026 (CES 2026), the world’s largest home appliance and information technology (IT) exhibition, in Las Vegas and met with industry leaders including Nvidia Corporation CEO Jensen Huang to explore future innovation strategies in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.
Afterward, during his visit to India, Chung traveled to automotive manufacturing sites across the country to flesh out local growth strategies, keeping up a breathless schedule.
Chung’s intense New Year schedule is seen as an effort to directly assess business areas spanning both the present and the future—mobility, hydrogen and AI robotics—in three major economic blocs with strong global influence, while encouraging ongoing structural improvements and strengthening of ecosystem competitiveness.


According to Hyundai Motor Group on the 14th, Chung spent two days on January 12 and 13 visiting the Hyundai Motor Chennai Plant in southeastern India, the Kia Anantapur Plant in central India, and the Hyundai Motor Pune Plant in western-central India in succession, where he reviewed the status of local production and sales as well as mid- to long-term development strategies.
India, with a population of 1.4 billion—the largest in the world—not only has a powerful domestic market but is also expected to have high growth potential thanks to its young demographic structure, with an average age in the late 20s. It is therefore one of the key markets on which Hyundai Motor Group is focusing.
In response, Hyundai Motor Group has established a strategy for the Indian mobility market that includes building an annual production system of 1.5 million units, implementing a flexible product lineup strategy tailored to the market, and positioning itself as a pivotal company by fostering an electrification ecosystem.
During his visit to the Hyundai Motor Chennai Plant on the 12th, Chung received a business briefing from Hyundai Motor and then toured the Creta production line and the Hyundai Mobis Battery System Assembly (BSA) plant.
Chung said, “Hyundai Motor has been able to grow thanks to the love of the Indian people over the past 30 years,” stressing, “We must pursue a home-brand strategy that looks ahead another 30 years so that we can be reborn as a national company of India.”
On the same day, Chairman Chung Eui-sun visited the Kia Anantapur Plant to review Kia Corporation’s production and sales strategy. He said, “Kia, now in its eighth year in India, has significant growth potential and opportunities ahead, so it must set ambitious goals,” adding, “In the Indian market, we must become the best in the eyes of Indian customers in terms of brand, product appeal and quality. We must not be afraid of failure.”
On the 13th, at the Hyundai Motor Pune Plant, Chung closely examined the production quality of the new Venue and emphasized the significance and role of the Pune Plant—reborn as a strategic production hub for Hyundai Motor—in contributing to the regional economy in India.
In particular, Chung made time to dine with and encourage employees and their families of Hyundai Motor and Kia Corporation. Presenting Korean cosmetics as gifts to the families, he expressed his gratitude, saying, “Hyundai Motor Group has been able to succeed in India thanks to the dedication of your families.”


Earlier, making his first trip to China in eight months, Chairman Chung Eui-sun spent two days on the 4th and 5th in Beijing, exploring possibilities for strategic cooperation with local companies and directly examining the rapidly changing local market.
Taking advantage of the occasion of the president’s state visit to China, Chung attended the Korea-China Business Forum held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse for the first time in nine years, where he discussed broad-based collaboration plans in various fields including mobility, hydrogen, batteries and technology.
Chung held in-depth discussions on the battery sector—core components for electric vehicles—with Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, the world’s largest battery company, and exchanged views on the hydrogen business with Hou Qijun, chairman of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Group).
Analysts say that the synergy from cooperation between Hyundai Motor Group—which maintains an overwhelming No. 1 global market share in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and produces hydrogen fuel cell systems at HTWO Guangzhou Co., Ltd., its hydrogen business hub in China—and Sinopec, which recently began operating a green hydrogen plant with an annual capacity of 20,000 tons, is expected to be substantial.
Chung also met with Zhang Naiwen, chairman of Jiangsu Yueda Group, Kia’s joint-venture partner in China, and agreed to strengthen their continuous and forward-looking cooperative relationship.
Immediately after his visit to China, Chung traveled to Las Vegas in the U.S. on the 6th and 7th to attend CES 2026, where he examined developments in future fields such as AI and robotics. He also held meetings with key executives of global big tech companies, including Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia Corporation, and Qualcomm COO Akash Palkhiwala.
As Atlas, the humanoid robot from Hyundai Motor Group subsidiary Boston Dynamics, generated a strong response at this year’s CES and the group’s AI and robotics technologies drew significant attention, Chung’s reunion with Jensen Huang—just three months after their much-talked-about “Kkanbu meeting” last year—was closely watched.
Hyundai Motor Group and Nvidia Corporation are strengthening cooperation in physical AI in Korea, including a supply contract for 50,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, and plan to further advance in-vehicle AI, autonomous driving, production efficiency and robotics competitiveness. This latest meeting is seen as an extension of those efforts.
hjkim01@fnnews.com Kim Hak-jae Reporter