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| Hyundai Motor's entry-level SUV Casper will be the first car to be produced under the Gwangju job project aimed at revitalizing the regional economy and creating jobs. The carmaker unveiled the Casper on Wednesday. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor |
By Yi Whan-woo
A new Hyundai Motor vehicle scheduled to launch later this month is raising hopes in President Moon Jae-in's innovative job market revitalization initiative.
An entry-level SUV, Casper be the will the first car to be produced by Hyundai Motor under the "Gwangju-style Job Project" aimed at revitalizing the regional economy of Gwangju, through four-way cooperation among the central government, the municipality, the private sector and labor unions.
Hyundai Motor unveiled the Casper as the latest news coming out of the 575.4 billion-won ($495.2 million) joint venture plant between the company and the Gwangju Metropolitan Government in the country's southwestern city.
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| President Moon Jae-in speaks during a signing ceremony between Hyundai Motor and the Gwangju Metropolitan Government about the construction of a joint venture plant in Gwangju in this photo taken in 2019. Korea Times file |
The plant, called Gwangju Global Motors (GGM), is responsible for manufacturing vehicles outsourced by Hyundai Motor in accordance with an agreement reached by the carmaker and the Gwangju Metropolitan Government in 2019.
The regional government provided 628,000 square meters of land for the GGM plant, and together with the central government, is also responsible for the welfare expenses of the factory workers.
The welfare is to supplement the relatively low annual salary of the GGM employees. They receive almost half of the average pay of workers at the five domestic carmakers.
The construction of the GGM was completed in April of this year; however, any specifics regarding the type of vehicles to be manufactured there were not revealed until Wednesday.
The Casper comes with either a 1.0-liter multi-point injection engine or a 1.0-liter gasoline direction injection engine. Its official launch date is slated for Sept. 15, with its targeted customers being Millennials.
Hyundai Motor plans to sell the mini SUV exclusively online after consulting with its labor union.
Industry sources have given the planned sales strategy positive assessments.
"It will be effective in drawing attention from young generations who are used to shopping online," an industry source said.
A GGM executive expressed his hope that Hyundai's latest vehicle sales strategy could help the GGM meet its goal of manufacturing up to 100,000 vehicles annually and create more than 11,000 jobs through a supply chain by 2022. President Moon's term will end in March of the same year.
"The more Caspers are sold, the higher the chances we have to hire more employees and diversify the production lines," the executive said, asking not to be named. The GGM currently employs about 500 regular workers, which is nearly half the size of its planned employment goal.
The factory is capable of manufacturing larger-sized models than the Casper as well as electric vehicles (EVs).
"You can see the potential of the GGM and we therefore have high expectations of the Casper," he added.
The Gwangju project was part of President Moon's promises during his presidential campaign back in 2017 and was classified as one of his government's 100 key tasks.
But unionized Hyundai workers and those at their umbrella labor group, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, opposed the idea, arguing that the initiative would create employment setbacks in the long term.
