AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/20 Report--

Three employees were suffocated in a laboratory after a safety accident at Hyundai Motor's factory in Ulsan, South Korea, on November 19, local time, CCTV News reported.

According to reports, two of the three dead were Hyundai employees and one was a joint venture employee. At about 12:50 at noon on the same day, the three people entered the comprehensive environmental test room to test the driving performance of the vehicle. Until about 3 pm, the three people still did not go out of the laboratory, so other staff entered the laboratory to check and found that the three people could not afford to fall to the ground. They called the phone and sent them to the hospital for medical treatment. Unfortunately, the three people finally died after rescue. It is speculated that the cause of the accident may be that when the vehicle was tested in the laboratory, the vehicle exhaust was not emitted to the outside, resulting in the suffocation of three employees. It is understood that the laboratory is a closed space, there is a device inside can automatically exhaust exhaust, but the device did not start that day due to unknown reasons.

At present, the South Korean police are investigating whether the scene complied with the company's safety regulations, and conducted an investigation on witnesses to find out the specific cause of the accident. In addition, the police plan to entrust the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death. South Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor sent labor supervisors to the scene to confirm the accident and stopped working in the factory. While investigating the cause of the accident, the Ministry of Labor investigated whether the factory violated the Industrial Safety and Health Care Law and the severe disaster Enterprise punishment Law.

In response to this accident, Hyundai Motor said that it would express its deep condolences to the surviving family; it will find out the cause of the accident as soon as possible and actively take necessary measures; and in order to prevent the recurrence of such a regrettable accident in the future, it will try its best to formulate countermeasures.

It is understood that the Ulsan factory is the first production base of Hyundai and the largest automobile factory in the world, covering an area of 4.8 million square meters, with an annual production capacity of 1.5 million vehicles, producing cars, SUV, trucks, light commercial vehicles and other types of models, including the Esquire Accent, Yatto Atos, Tejie Trajet, Shengda SantaFe, Century CentennaiaL and Dynasty, Langte Elantra and Coolpad two-door sedan Coupe. It is worth mentioning that the Ulsan factory is building a special electric vehicle factory covering an area of 548000 square meters, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2025 and mass production will begin in 2026, ushering in a new era of electric development of modern cars.

Hyundai is the third largest auto group in the world by sales. In the third quarter of 2024, Hyundai Motor achieved operating income of 42.93 trillion won, a record high for a single quarter, up 4.7% from a year earlier and down 4.6% from a month earlier. However, operating profit fell 6.5% from a year earlier to 3.56 trillion won. During the reporting period, Hyundai global wholesale sales of 1.012 million vehicles, down 3.2% from the same period last year, of which electric vehicle sales fell 7.58% to 61000, mainly because the global economic slowdown suppressed industrial demand and the performance of each market was uneven. Strong growth in North America contrasts sharply with a decline in sales in Europe. Sales of Hyundai in North America rose 9.3 per cent to 300300 vehicles in the third quarter from a year earlier, while sales in China and Europe fell 4.2 per cent, according to the results.

It is worth mentioning that Hyundai recently announced the appointment of Jose Jose Munoz as its new chief executive, effective January 1, 2025, the first non-Korean CEO in Hyundai history. It is understood that Jose Munoz was born in Spain and joined Hyundai in 2019. He is currently the global chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor and the chief executive of Hyundai Motor and Genisseth North America. He was elected as a board member in 2023 and became the first non-Korean executive.

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