Hyundai Motor Group is partnering with three Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) – IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras – to establish a research system to advance the development of batteries and electrification.
This move will result in the Hyundai Center of Excellence (CoE), which will be set up at IIT Delhi. The primary objective of the CoE is to take the lead in pushing advances in batteries and electrification to meet the requirements of the cutthroat Indian automotive market.
Hyundai officials, along with IIT representatives, including Prof. Rangan Banerjee, a director at IIT Delhi; dean Sachin C Patwardhan from IIT Bombay; and dean Manu Santhanam from IIT Madras, attended a ceremony at IIT Delhi, where they signed the agreement for Hyundai Motor Group-IIT Hyundai CoE.
“We are delighted to join forces with IITs, a group of leading engineering universities renowned for its exceptional education and research,” said Naksup Sung, head of the Hyundai Motor Group Research and Development (R&D) Planning & Coordination Center.
Hyundai Motor Group plans to invest around US$7m from 2025 to 2029 to conduct battery and electrification research with the three universities. The collaboration will also expand into areas such as software and hydrogen fuel cells.
Hyundai aims to contribute to the establishment of an EV ecosystem in India, in conjunction with the Indian government’s policies for expanding EV distribution. The collaboration will involve the Centre for Automotive Research and Tribology (CART), the only EV-related research institute in India, located within IIT Delhi.
The Hyundai CoE will also facilitate technical and human exchanges between battery and electrification experts from Korea and India. This will involve technical exchange meetings, special IIT lectures by Hyundai battery and electrification experts, and the operation of training programs in Korea.
