Hyundai Motor Group will keep its autonomous vehicle joint venture Motional alive with a direct investment of $475 million.
This move will reduce its JV partner Aptiv’s common equity interest in Motional to about 44%. Hyundai will then purchase 11% of Aptiv’s common equity interest in Motional for $448 million. Additionally, Aptiv will convert about 21% of its common equity interest in Motional for preferred shares.
This will result in Aptiv’s stake in Motional going from 50% as of March of this year to just 15% upon completion of these deals, which are expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year after customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.
The move by Aptiv is not surprising after earlier this year the company said it would reduce its stake in the robotaxi JV stating the company could no longer support the millions in loses related to its investment in Motional.
Aptiv joins numerous other companies that have cut back on automated driving development including:
- Ford Motors
- General Motors
- Volkswagen
This doesn’t mean that autonomous driving development is going away. In fact, with Tesla Motors entering the fray it may be headed in an interesting direction. However, growth is struggling given the amount of funding needed to test these vehicles and the troubles with accidents that is contributing to stifling the growth in the market.
Hyundai’s continued investment comes after Motional became the first autonomous vehicle in April to successfully pass Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles’ driving test. With a Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) agent on board, the Ioniq 5 robotaxi traversed obstacles, navigated around Las Vegas and followed the directions of the agent through the highly populated Strip area of the city.
