Hyundai Motor, Kia to develop alternative to rare earth materials

Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. have partnered with South Korea's universities to secure materials for vehicle electrification components.

Hyundai Motor and Kia announced on Tuesday that they have established the Hyundai Motor Group Magnetic Material Joint Research Laboratory at Yonsei University's Sinchon Campus to enhance the technological competitiveness of permanent magnets, which are key components of electric vehicles.

The joint research laboratory aims to secure technologies to replace and recycle rare earth elements, essential raw materials for electrification.

Rare earth elements are key materials in the neodymium permanent magnets used in electric vehicle motors.

However, its production process causes environmental pollution, leading some countries to regulate the import and export of rare earth elements.

As a result, securing technologies to replace rare earth magnetic materials and to recycle used components has become an important task.

Hyundai Motor and Kia plan to run the joint research laboratory for three years in collaboration with seven universities—Yonsei University, Seoul National University, Sungkyunkwan University, Pusan National University, Pukyong National University, Chungnam National University and Chungbuk National University—and the industry-academia cooperation institution Hyundai NGV.

The joint research laboratory will conduct research on non-rare earth magnetic materials to replace rare earth elements, rare earth recycling to recover and reuse rare earth elements from motors, and magnetic property evaluation to advance the measurement of magnetic materials.

Researchers from the Basic Material Research Center of both companies will participate in the project to create synergy.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com