Hyundai Motor has made it clear that it is ready to compete with Chinese car companies in the European market. At the same time, it has promised to independently respond to EU emission regulations and refuse to purchase carbon credits from competitors.Xavier Martine, head of Hyundai Motor Europe, said that Hyundai does not plan to buy carbon credits from China and other electric vehicle competitors. He said bluntly: "Why should we pay our competitors to achieve our goals? This is not only spending money, but also strengthening our opponents."
Starting from 2025, the European Union requires car companies to reduce the average carbon emissions of new cars sold by 15% on the basis of 2021. The average carbon emissions of new passenger cars need to be reduced to 93.6 grams/km. Any excess carbon emissions will be fined 95 euros per gram.
In order to avoid fines, many car companies have formed alliances, and some have spent hundreds of millions of euros in the past year.Purchase carbon credits from Chinese car companies such as BYD whose sales of electric vehicles in the EU are rising. BYD has also accumulated abundant carbon credit resources with its high proportion of electric vehicle sales.
In addition, in order to consolidate its market position, Hyundai plans to launch five pure electric and hybrid models in the next 18 months. The core goal is to maintain its 8% market share in the EU and the UK, which ranks first among non-European car companies.
To achieve this goal, Hyundai will launch the pure electric model Ani Krypton 3 hatchback in April 2026, which will directly compete with the Volkswagen ID.3 with a starting price of slightly less than 30,000 euros.
At the same time, Hyundai also admitted that the electric transformation speed is slower than industry expectations, so it will provide electric or hybrid versions of all models by 2027, rather than being fully electrified.