Hyundai plans humanoid robots in new car factories after 2032

Aju Press reported on October 18, 2026 that Hyundai Motor Group plans to bring humanoid robots into new manufacturing plants after 2032. The roadmap was laid out at a media preview ahead of E-FOREST Tech Day 2026, which runs October 19 to 21 at the Hyundai Motor and Kia research institute in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, with about 200 manufacturing technologies on show.

Choi Young-tae, head of the E-FOREST Center, said the group will first build up autonomous manufacturing at the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore by 2030, then add humanoids and full automation at future factories after 2032. The aim is to move past robots that only repeat jobs like welding and painting, toward physical AI that can sense its surroundings and make decisions. Target tasks include connecting wiring inside vehicles, supplying interior trim parts and touching up paint, which have been hard to automate.

Singapore will serve as the test bed before the technology spreads to the Metaplant America site in Georgia and the EV plant in Ulsan. Hyundai is also building digital twins to simulate factory operations, and is showing logistics robots that cost about 30 percent less to make and now charge in as little as 12 minutes instead of roughly two hours.

Why it matters

A major automaker putting dates on humanoid deployment shows where factory robotics is heading and which tasks humanoids are expected to take first.

Source: Aju Press