Hyundai plans $51 billion investment in 6 years with focus on e-vehicles

Hyundai Motor plans to invest about 61.1 trillion won ($51.81 billion) between 2020 and 2025, about one-third of the expenditure focused on electric and autonomous vehicles, the company said on Wednesday.

The South Korean carmaker unveiled a "Strategy 2025" roadmap that envisaged annual average spending of 10 trillion won, higher than previous years, and up from a 2018 figure of 6.1 trillion won.

Hyundai will devote about 20 trillion won of the total investment, spread across six years, to future technologies, it added.

It also set an ambitious deadline of 2025 to place itself among the world's top three makers of battery and fuel cell vehicles, with annual sales of 670,000 electric vehicles, including 560,000 battery-based cars.

Hyundai shares were up 2 per cent by 01:36 GMT after the announcement, which included a plan to buy back 259.6 billion won worth of common shares.