Celebrating 15 years of series
production

Do you know what happened exactly 15 years ago? After reading the headline, you probably do – we celebrated our first produced car.

Let’s go back 15 years first. HMMC received the last expected permit with test runs for the production halls on Friday, October 31, 2008. This meant that there was no longer any obstacle to starting production a few months earlier than originally planned.

On Monday, 3 November 2008, just 19 months after the start of the plant construction, the first mass-produced car came off the line at the Final Assembly Plant during a small company celebration – the first generation Hyundai i30. It was a white hatchback designed for a Czech customer. The ceremony was watched by the management of our company and employees of HMMC and some of the supplier companies.

A week later, the celebration was held again – at that time, the production launch ceremony was also held with the participation of the Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region Evžen Tošenovský, the Minister of Industry and Trade Martin Říman, other important guests and the media.

Since then, more than 4.3 million cars have been produced at our plant. Production started in single-shift operation, the second shift was launched in September 2009 and the third shift in September 2011. The year 2016 was a record year in terms of the number of cars produced – a total of 358,400 cars were produced then.

Which models have we produced in the past?

The last generation of the TUCSON, which came off the line between 2015 and 2020, is the most produced car in Nošovice so far, with a total of 1.18 million produced. Combined across all generations of the i30 model range, which has been in continuous production from the start of production to the present day, this totals more than 1.3 million cars.

Successful production of this year

By the end of October this year, 286,600 cars had rolled off the production lines. This is 10,300 cars above plan, so this year’s production can be expected to reach 340,000 cars (up from the planned 328,500) thanks to smooth production and a favourable component supply situation. 322,500 cars were produced last year. Our flagship model is the TUCSON, which accounts for over 70% of production. Our largest customers are Germany, the UK, Spain and France. The TUCSON is also widely sold in the Middle East.

While in 2016 the share of petrol and diesel engines was almost equal, this year the share of diesels is only 7%. In the long term, around one third of finished cars leave our plant on rails. The share of trains is also set to grow thanks to the recent launch of a third shift for train loading of cars. One fully loaded train is equivalent to approximately 32 trucks, which represents a significant environmental benefit.

The electric future

Hyundai Motor is committed to gradually increasing the share of zero-emission vehicles in total sales over the coming years. From 2035, all new Hyundai vehicles sold in Europe will be powered by either traction batteries or fuel cells. Hyundai will therefore only offer zero-emission vehicles in Europe. In line with the transition to clean mobility, the portfolio of pure electric models produced in Nošovice will continue to expand in the coming years.

“Our high productivity and experienced employees make the HMMC plant very important for the entire Hyundai Group. Our models are popular with customers and meet the highest safety, reliability and quality standards. We are not afraid of new challenges and the future of green mobility. We are the first non-Korean Hyundai manufacturing plant to produce pure electric cars, which will account for a large part of our production in the coming years, and we are very well prepared for this situation,” said Martin Klíčník, Head of the Production Subdivision.

We are investing significant resources in the installation of new technologies and advanced automation, even in view of the upcoming production innovations.

The share of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles in our production is over 40% this year and is growing steadily. While until 2019, we produced cars exclusively with a pure petrol or diesel drive, production of the Hyundai KONA Electric, which became the first mass-produced new-generation electric car in the Czech Republic, began in early 2020. This summer, production of the second-generation electric car began. With the new version of the TUCSON model, which went into production in autumn 2020 (approximately 665,000 vehicles of this model have been produced so far), production of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles also began in Nošovice.

Billions of Czech crowns to the state budget

“We have contributed to the successful transformation of a region plagued by high unemployment. In addition, thousands of jobs in subcontracting companies are linked to our production plant. We are pleased that we are among the most attractive employers in the region, as evidenced by our success in industry surveys. As a socially responsible employer, we have been striving for a long time to improve the quality of life in the Moravian-Silesian Region thanks to a number of projects, and on a national scale we rank among the drivers of the Czech economy,” said Petr Michník, Head of the Administration Subdivision of HMMC.

Our company contributes significantly to the state budget. We have long been one of the largest income tax payers – for example, last year we ranked 4th with the amount of tax paid amounting to CZK 2.4 billion. In total, our company has already paid CZK 19.2 billion in corporate income tax (including advance payments for 2023). A further nearly CZK 10 billion was paid in social security and health insurance for employees, including personal income tax, between 2006 and 2022. To this must be added further contributions generated by a wide network of suppliers. Investment incentives for our company totalled CZK 5.4 billion between 2006 and 2022.