Hyundai India Targets RE100 Benchmark With 100 Percent Renewable Energy By 2025

Hyundai Motor India has announced its goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy usage by 2025, aligning with the global RE100 benchmark.

The South Korean automotive giant aims to power all its operations in India with renewable energy. Hyundai’s strategy includes the procurement of green electricity from the Indian Energy Exchange, boosting its renewable energy portfolio to 64 percent.

This effort has already resulted in substantial energy savings, equivalent to approximately 19,200 tonnes of oil, through various energy management projects implemented across its facilities in India. Furthermore, Hyundai has made remarkable progress in water conservation, achieving 80 percent water neutrality.

According to the Press Release, this achievement was made possible by the use of recycled RO water and rainwater harvested from ponds with a capacity of 350,000 tonnes. The company has also significantly reduced hazardous waste by 19.4 percent and non-hazardous waste by 14.3 percent over the last five years.

As part of its broader sustainability strategy, Hyundai is focusing on the development and launch of electric vehicles (EVs) and the establishment of EV charging infrastructure. To support this initiative, the company has committed to investing over Rs 32,000 crores in the next decade.

This investment will be directed towards expanding its car and SUV platforms, including the development of a comprehensive electric vehicle range and the creation of a robust EV charging network.

Gopala Krishnan CS, Chief Manufacturing Officer at HMIL, emphasised Hyundai’s dedication to environmental responsibility in an official press release, stating, “Our operations are driven by a strong sense of responsibility towards the environment and our communities.”

He highlighted Hyundai’s proactive role in contributing to long-term sustainable development goals and outlined the company’s comprehensive sustainability initiatives focused on carbon neutrality, energy transition, circularity, clean tech products and services, operational eco-efficiency, and natural capital conservation.

He further elaborated on Hyundai’s ‘Integrated Solutions to Climate Change’ initiative, which aims for carbon neutrality by 2045, ensuring a sustainable operating system for future generations.

As per the Economic Times report, the company has implemented several innovative energy management practices to conserve energy. These include transitioning from conventional to LED lighting in their plant, offices, and dealerships, which was completed by 2017.

They also use a thermo-ceramic coating on furnaces and ovens to reduce fuel consumption, recover waste heat in paint shops to eliminate the need for steam, relocate boilers to reduce energy loss during transmission and install turbo chillers in paint shops, among other measures.