'3-Year Permit Process Completed in 10 Months'... Ulsan City Finds Solution by Dispatching Officials On-Site

Ulsan City Completes 'Hyundai Electric Vehicle New Factory Construction Permit'

Site 550,000㎡ · Total Floor Area 330,000㎡... Construction Starts in September

Dedicated Officials Dispatched for Support, "A City Good for Business"

The approval process, which typically takes three years, was completed in just 10 months. The investing company also finished the project five months ahead of its initially accelerated target.

The construction permit for Hyundai Motor Company's new electric vehicle plant has been granted, with groundbreaking scheduled for this September.

This project gained attention as Ulsan City dispatched dedicated public officials to the company for administrative support?the first such case nationwide?and provided assistance from the business planning stage through permit processing.

On the 24th, Ulsan City announced that it completed the "Hyundai Motor Electric Vehicle New Plant Construction Permit" on the 19th, covering a site of 550,000㎡ for the driving test field within Hyundai Motor's Ulsan plant in Myeongchon-dong, Buk-gu, and a total building floor area of 330,000㎡.

Accordingly, Hyundai Motor plans to begin construction in September after filing a safety work plan and construction notification, complete the plant by the end of 2024, conduct trial operations, and start full-scale electric vehicle production by the end of 2025.

New factory site.

In July 2022, Hyundai Motor announced a large-scale investment plan worth approximately 2.3 trillion KRW to build a new electric vehicle plant to aggressively capture the global EV market.

This project is effectively the first large-scale reinvestment in a developed, aging national industrial complex in South Korea.

Since the existing plant was completed before the enforcement of related laws such as environmental, traffic, disaster impact assessments, and cultural heritage surveys, all relevant regulations had to be applied retroactively during redevelopment, making the permit process as challenging as establishing a new industrial complex. This posed significant difficulties for project advancement.

In particular, complex challenges such as demolishing and relocating existing facilities without disrupting production, constructing replacement facilities, opening access roads, and negotiating the use of national and public land made the permit process, which usually takes about three years, a critical factor for the project's success.

To ensure Hyundai Motor's large-scale investment project proceeded without trial and error amid these complex permit variables, Ulsan City dispatched dedicated public officials to the site from September 7, 2022, to provide administrative support for various permit-related tasks.

As a result of this administrative support, all tasks?from factory site development, construction of a replacement parking tower for finished vehicles (5,000 spaces), to the new plant construction permit?were handled through a one-stop service within approximately 10 months.

This dramatically shortened the administrative process, which typically takes about three years to complete. Initially, Hyundai Motor had anticipated the project to be a long-term one, expecting about 15 months for the permit process. Ulsan City's dispatch of dedicated officials revolutionized this permit procedure.

Kim Doo-gyeom, Mayor of Ulsan, said, "I am pleased that the first case of dispatching dedicated public officials nationwide to support a company's large-scale investment project has been successfully completed," adding, "We will continue to expand proactive administrative support for investing companies to further strengthen Ulsan's image as a 'business-friendly city and an attractive city for investment.'"

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