Hyundai, Toyota, Volkswagen, 3 Companies 3 Colors Electrification Strategies... Market Response?

Comparison of Stock Prices Before and After Investor Events of Three Companies
Enthusiasm for Toyota, Positive Response to Hyundai Motor, Disappointment with Volkswagen
Toyota Hits 52-Week High with Aggressive EV Strategy
Hyundai Motor Also Responds Positively to Expansion of Battery JV Establishment

As the global automotive industry is being reshaped into a three-way competition among Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai Motor Company, each company's electrification strategies have been unveiled. From mid-month, the three companies consecutively held investor briefings to present their concrete strategies. The market reacted enthusiastically to Toyota, positively to Hyundai, and indifferently to Volkswagen.

On the 23rd, Asia Economy analyzed the stock price trends before and after the investor events of Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai. This was to examine the market's response to each company's strategy by looking at their stock prices traded in the Japanese, German, and Korean stock markets.

First, Toyota closed at 2,173.5 yen on the day of the announcement, up 5% from the previous day. The stock rose more than 6% the following day, and on the 15th, two days later, it touched an intraday high of 2,358 yen, setting a 52-week record high. It is evaluated that Toyota's aggressive electrification strategy, after being passive about the transition to electric vehicles, drove the stock price up.

In the announcement on the 13th, Toyota revealed manufacturing innovation plans such as giga casting (a production method that molds the vehicle in one piece) and factories without conveyor belts. Additionally, the detailed disclosure of commercialization timelines and development status according to battery development stages attracted attention. Toyota is developing a total of four types of batteries: ▲ high-performance (ternary) prismatic battery with a driving range of 1,000 km ▲ bipolar lithium iron phosphate (LFP) mass-market battery ▲ bipolar lithium-ion high-performance battery ▲ and solid-state battery.

Toyota plans to launch a high-performance electric vehicle capable of driving 1,000 km with a 20-minute charge in 2026. It also aims to commercialize a solid-state battery that can travel 1,200 km with a charge within 10 minutes around 2027. Currently, Toyota has overcome durability challenges of solid-state batteries and reached the stage of developing mass production methods. Based on confidence in its battery self-development capabilities and manufacturing process innovations, Toyota set a target to sell 3.5 million electric vehicles by 2030.

Hyundai Motor Company, which held its CEO Investor Day on the 20th, raised its global electric vehicle sales target to 2 million units by 2030. Including Kia (1.6 million units), the total reaches 3.6 million units, which is 100,000 units more than Toyota's target. Hyundai's stock price barely moved on the day of the event but rose over 3% the next day, recovering to the 200,000 KRW range.

Hyundai also disclosed detailed progress on battery self-development, but the market paid more attention to the possibility of expanding joint ventures (JV) with Korean battery companies. Increasing joint development with Korean battery manufacturers recognized globally could stabilize battery supply. Hyundai announced that after 2028, 70% of its battery demand will be procured through JVs. Following JV establishments in Indonesia in 2024 and the United States in 2025, it is also considering establishing one in Europe.

The reconsideration of its China business, which had been called a "pain point," also positively affected the stock price. Hyundai plans to close one more plant this year following the sale of its China Plant 1 in 2021 and the suspension of Plant 5 operations in 2022. The two plants that have stopped operations will be sold, and the remaining two will improve production efficiency by exporting China-produced models to emerging countries.

The Volkswagen Group held its Capital Markets Day event on the 21st (local time), the last among the three companies. At this event, Volkswagen unveiled the introduction of the next-generation SSP platform, empowerment of individual brands, and financial strategy goals. However, the market's expectations for bold and specific plans were not met.

On the day of the announcement (the 21st), Volkswagen's stock price in the German market closed at 154.25 euros, down 0.52% from the previous day. The next day, the stock price fell 1.72% to 151.6 euros. At this event, Volkswagen emphasized "quality of earnings over sales volume" and did not disclose a global electric vehicle sales target separately. Instead, it presented an annual sales growth rate target of 5-7% by 2027 and a strategic sales profit margin target of 9-11% by 2030.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.