Hyundai and General Motors sign MoU to explore developing and building cars together, including EVs

Hyundai has announced it has signed an agreement with General Motors to explore future collaboration across key strategic areas. Through a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU), both parties will investigate the possibility of jointly developing and manufacturing passenger and commercial vehicles.

The framework agreement also mentions working together on internal combustion as well as electrified powertrains, the latter including fully electric and hydrogen technologies. Additionally, both OEMs will also leverage their competencies to reduce costs and accelerate development time to bring vehicles to market sooner.

The companies are also interested in combining their resources in areas such as steel, battery raw materials and others. In an official release, Hyundai and GM said the assessment of opportunities and progression towards binding agreements will begin immediately after the MoU signing.

Alliances in the automotive sector are not unheard of and are starting to be more common as companies look gain a better foothold, particularly in the electric vehicle (EV) segment that is seeing strong competition from Chinese automakers. Honda and Nissan paired up in March this year and was joined by Mitsubishi in August. Meanwhile, Toyota, Mazda and Subaru expressed their long-term commitment to combustion engines and a multi-pathway approach to carbon neutrality.

GM had previously partnered with Honda to jointly develop affordable EVs but this plan was scrapped nearly one after ink was put to paper. Perhaps Hyundai is a better fit for the US-based automaker, but only time will tell if the partnership is fruitful.

Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.