Hyundai Motor Group strengthens innovation with 65,000 patents

May 19, 2026, 07:48 pm

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Hyundai Motor Group is accelerating efforts to strengthen its future mobility competitiveness by building a massive intellectual property portfolio of more than 65,000 patents worldwide.

According to the group on May 19, Hyundai Motor Company currently holds 38,097 domestic and overseas patents, while Kia owns 26,825 patents. The automakers are filing an average of about 3,000 new patents annually as they seek to secure leadership in next-generation technologies.

Hyundai Motor Group said it is strategically expanding patent ownership in eco-friendly electrification sectors including electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), as well as autonomous driving, AI-powered future mobility and next-generation communications technologies.

The company is also increasing patent investments in emerging growth areas such as robotics and hydrogen ecosystems, along with in-vehicle user experience technologies, smart factories and manufacturing innovation.

The group attributed part of its success to its corporate culture that actively encourages employee inventions and patent development. Hyundai Motor holds an annual event on Invention Day to recognize employees’ achievements, evaluating patented technologies and projects in categories including commercialized patents, outstanding patents and i-LAB innovation projects.

In the commercialized patent category, awards were presented to researchers whose technologies were applied to Hyundai and Kia vehicles and recognized for improving product competitiveness and performance.

Among the 58 awarded technologies were a deodorizing composition containing odorless microorganisms developed by senior researcher Lee Tae-hee and a vehicle battery cooling system presented by research fellow Kim Jae-yeon.

The top awards this year went to Kang Dong-hoon for a lane-change strategy considering DCAS (Driver Control Assistance System) regulatory requirements and Shin Seung-ho for a performance recovery driving method for fuel cell vehicles.

In the newly established overseas research center category, Erol Dogan Schimmer, a team manager at the Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. (HATCI), received recognition for developing a long-range trailer detection and route planning system.

A Hyundai Motor Group official said the awards represent a meaningful opportunity for all employees to become drivers of innovation and transform ideas into reality.

“The company will continue supporting these ideas so they can grow into core technologies and global intellectual property assets leading the future mobility market,” the official said.

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