Motional, the Hyundai Motor-Aptiv joint venture, said Thursday it has partnered with US ride-sharing firm Lyft Inc. to launch driverless robotaxi services in major US cities in 2023. Motional said it plans to deploy fully autonomous vehicles, which are based on the Korean automaker Hyundai Motor's platform, in Lyft's ride-sharing network in the United States. Lyft has the second-biggest ride-sharing network in the world's most important automobile market after Uber Technologies Inc. The busin

Korean Air Lines Co. and its labor union have agreed to freeze wages and put 70 percent of employees on furlough in the first half of 2021 to ride out the fallout of COVID-19, officials said Wednesday. About 70 percent of 12,600 employees at South Korea's largest air carrier have been taking unpaid leave since April as part of cost-cutting efforts to overcome the impact of the pandemic. In this year's negotiations, the management and the labor union agreed to freeze wages and maintain the furl

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. topped the global hydrogen vehicle sales in the first nine months of the year on rising demand for the Nexo model, data showed Monday. In the first nine months, Hyundai Motor sold a total of 4,917 hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, accounting for 74 percent of the global hydrogen car market, according to data from local market research firm SNE Research. Toyota Motors Corp. ranked second with a share of 11.5 percent, or 767 vehicles, while Honda Motor Co. ran

Asiana Airlines Inc. said Monday it will cut its capital base to improve its financial status amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Shareholders approved a 3:1 capital reduction plan as the airline's capital erosion rate reached 56.3 percent at the end of June, a company spokesman said. "The company made the decision to avoid being designated as issues for administration or having its credit rating downgraded," he said over the phone. After the reduction, the number of Asiana's overall stocks

Police investigate cause of last week’s accident that left one dead, two injured

South Korea’s leading automaker takes step to transform into smart mobility solution provider with Boston Dynamics buy

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group said Friday its affiliates and its chairman will buy an 80-percent stake, worth up to 900 billion won ($828 million), in US robotics firm Boston Dynamics Inc. in the latest move to propel its future mobility business. The board of directors at Hyundai Motor and its two affiliates, Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Glovis, approved the plan to acquire the controlling stake in Boston Dynamics from Japanese investment firm SoftBank Group, Hyundai Motor said in a regulator

Audi Volkswagen Group has unveiled its electrification strategy and business plans in the Korean market over the next years. The group said in a digital press conference Friday its four affiliated brands -- Audi, Volkswagen, Lamborghini and Bentley -- will release more than 20 new models next year and eight electric car models within three years in the Korean market. The German automaker plans to increase the proportion of electric vehicle sales in Korea to 11 percent of the total sales b

South Korea will inject 32.1 billion won (US$29 million) into the virus-hit budget carrier Jeju Air Co. to help it stay afloat amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, a state lender said Thursday. The Key Industry Stabilization Fund will extend 25.7 billion won in loans to Jeju Air and invest 6.4 billion won in the carrier's convertible bonds, the state-run Korea Development Bank, which operates the fund, said in a statement. Jeju Air, the country's biggest low-cost carrier, is required to tak

Automaker aims to sell 560,000 EVs by 2025, 700,000 hydrogen fuel cells by 2030

Senior transport ministry official talks COVID-19, travel bubbles and Korean Air-Asiana acquisition

Kia Motors’ labor union on Wednesday began a partial strike, its third collective action this year, following the collapse of negotiations over wages and other issues a day earlier. Lost production from strikes this year is expected to exceed 30,000 vehicles. Representatives of the management and the union held talks for two days, but failed to reach a compromise. Following the talks’ collapse at midnight Tuesday, the union decided to cut work short by four hours per day for three

In a country first, Korean Air transported raw materials used to make COVID-19 vaccine from Korea to the Netherlands on Tuesday, the company said Wednesday. The South Korean flag carrier used a cold-chain system to deliver the packages weighing 800 kilograms, including containers and dry ice. Of the 800 kilograms, 208 kilograms is dry ice in special containers to keep temperatures below minus 60 degrees Celsius for some 120 hours – a threshold required to safely transport raw materials f

Unionized workers of Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, entered a partial strike again Wednesday as they failed to reach an agreement with the management over working conditions. Kia Motors and its union have held 15 rounds of meetings in this year's wage talks, but the two sides failed to narrow their differences over overtime work hours in the latest negotiation. Day and night shift workers will each stage four-hour strikes daily from Wednesday to Friday at plants in

Genesis GV70 embraces latest technologies, including the world’s first fingerprint authentication system