Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Incheon International Airport Corporation have signed an agreement to commercialize automatic charging robots for electric vehicles
May 30, 2025
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Hyundai Motor and Kia signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Incheon International Airport Corporation (based in Jung-gu, Incheon) on the 22nd (Thursday) to verify AI-based automatic charging robot technology. President Yang Hee-won, head of Hyundai Motor and Kia's R&D division, and Lee Hak-jae, president of Incheon International Airport Corporation, attended the signing ceremony.
Under the agreement, Hyundai Motor and Kia will cooperate with Incheon International Airport Corporation, which has the largest eco-friendly vehicle infrastructure in Korea, to provide an electric vehicle automatic charging robot service optimized for the airport environment.
The collaboration will lay the groundwork for Hyundai Motor and Kia to expand their electric vehicle automatic charging robot business to airport facilities, the highest-ranking national security area that requires higher safety and efficient operation.
In particular, Incheon International Airport has converted all business vehicles in the jurisdiction to eco-friendly cars and is expected to have 1,110 electric vehicle chargers by 2026, making it the best place to utilize automatic charging robot services.
First of all, Hyundai Motor and Kia Robotics Lab will provide automatic charging robots and software solutions for electric vehicles, and discover and apply service operation scenarios optimized for the operating environment of Incheon International Airport.
Incheon International Airport Corporation plans to actually operate an electric vehicle automatic charging robot for business eco-friendly vehicles, verify its usability, and collect and share feedback from airport employees.
Using this cooperation as a stepping stone, the two sides plan to create a leading cooperation model so that the "Electric Vehicle Automatic Charging Robot" service can be established in various transportation infrastructures such as ports and railroads in the future.
"This business agreement will be an important turning point to verify the practical utility of future mobility technologies by converging Hyundai Motor and Kia's robot and AI technologies with Incheon International Airport Corporation's accumulated operational experience," said Yang Hee-won, president of Hyundai Motor and Kia. "Hyundai Motor and Kia will contribute to expanding the supply of eco-friendly cars and leading the future mobility ecosystem by establishing various future mobility infrastructures with Incheon International Airport."
Lee Hak-jae, president of Incheon International Airport Corporation, said, "This business agreement is expected to improve Incheon International Airport's passenger service and operational efficiency," adding, "In the future, Incheon International Airport will continue to leap to the world's best digital airport based on excellent infrastructure and technology."
On the other hand, the electric vehicle automatic charging robot developed by Hyundai Motor and Kia is a one-armed robot that starts charging by holding a charger in the vehicle's charging port, and when charging is completed, the charger is pulled out and returned to its place. It is characterized by applying an AI algorithm based on a 3D camera so that it can accurately recognize the charging port and fasten the charger.
Hyundai Motor and Kia introduced the 'Pactorial Seongsu' located in Seongsu-dong, Seoul in 2024 to commercialize self-charging robots for electric vehicles, and provided a convenient charging experience through automatic charging robots at the 'Jeju Savile E-pit Charging Station' campaign for Hyundai Motor customers.
Through such demonstration projects, the technology of automatic charging robots has been continuously improved, and as a result, it obtained KC certification, a domestic quality guarantee certification system, last year and also CE certification by meeting the safety requirements of the European Union (EU).
Editor Kim Tae-jin, tj.kim@carguy.kr
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
