Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said he hopes to see expanding cooperation between the Middle East country’s startups and South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor in the fields of smart, connected and green mobility, the company said Monday.

In his visit to the Hyundai R&D Center in Namyang, Gyeonggi Province, the Israeli leader met the carmaker’s de facto chief, Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun, vowing to take the lead in the development of future cars by strengthening partnerships between two countries. The Israeli leader is on a five-day official visit to South Korea. 

“The future of automotive industry is in automation, safety and innovation. Together, Israel’s unique startups and Hyundai can turn the challenges of the future into great opportunities,” said Rivlin. “I know that you have already developed partnerships with some Israeli startups in these fields, and I hope that this is just the start. I look forward to expanding our cooperation. Together we can lead the way into the future of smart, safe, connected and clean cars.”

In response, Chung said that Hyundai would expand investment in Israel’s budding enterprises and apply parts of technology developed from the joint ventures in vehicles for mass production.

Through a startup incubator launched in November in Tel Aviv, Hyundai Motor signed a series of strategic partnership with Israeli startups including allegro.ai., a developer of computer vision technologies, Percepto, a drone maker, and energy firm H2 Pro.

In June, Hyundai also announced its investment in Israeli technology startup MDGo for connected mobility service that automatically call an ambulance in the case of car accidents.

Hyundai and its sister company Kia Motors are the largest and second-largest carmakers by sales in Israel. In 2018, the two sold a combined 73,828 cars in the Middle East country, accounting for 27.6 percent of the market share there.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)