Back in September 2024, Ford’s cross-town rival General Motors announced that it had signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding agreement with Hyundai with the intentions of exploring future collaborations across key strategic areas, as well as leveraging their complementary scale and strengths to reduce costs and bring a wider range of vehicles and technologies to customers faster. The two companies are aiming to collaborate on the co-development and production of both retail and commercial vehicles, as well as internal combustion engines, hydrogen-powered vehicles, and EVs. Now, those efforts will also focus on parts purchases by GM and Hyundai, too.
According to GM Authority, GM and Hyundai have now signed a new deal that will result in a joint vehicle parts purchasing plan, though specific details of that endeavor aren’t currently available. The idea is to help both companies increase their purchasing volume and lower costs, however, which is something that the broader joint-venture between the two automakers is also intended to do.
In recent months, we’ve learned a little bit about what this joint-venture between two Ford rivals intends to do, starting with the development of a pickup destined for the Latin America market. It’s unclear which automaker will build this new badge-engineered product, but it will likely be sold by both companies with different badging, regardless. Once again, the idea is to help both companies expand their global portfolios while also keeping development costs as low as possible.
Recently, Hyundai Chief Financial Officer Lee Seung Jo also revealed that the automaker plans to re-badge existing commercial vehicles and supply GM with those models, which it would then sell in North America. Seung Jo didn’t reveal which sorts of commercial vehicles Hyundai might be targeting, but its ST1 EV van platform could be on the table, as that architecture features a customizable ladder frame that’s optimized for cargo loading purposes, perfect for applications like small cube trucks. Another possibility is the Hyundai Elec City electric city bus, which could be used in North American cities for public transport services.
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