Hyundai and Kia Open 3D Printing Hub at Namyang R&D Center

Hyundai Motor Group has turned its Namyang R&D campus in Hwaseong, South Korea into something the company is calling an Additive Manufacturing Solution Center (AMSC). The facility opened this year, though Hyundai has been running 3D printing experiments since 1996. The delay between first use and a dedicated center tells you how long it took additive manufacturing to move from novelty to something the company actually depends on.

What the center actually does

The AMSC showcases at least six different AM processes, split pretty evenly between metal and polymer. That breadth matters. Most automaker 3D printing efforts stay locked in prototyping. Hyundai is trying to cover the full chain: design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) training for engineers, end-use tooling, emergency spare parts, and legacy part reproduction through reverse engineering.

Reverse engineering here means 3D scanning worn or obsolete components and printing replacements on demand. For a vehicle line that may be in production for decades, that capability closes a supply chain gap that traditional manufacturing struggles with at low volumes.

Why tooling is the immediate story

Supply uncertainty and workflow delays have pushed automakers to revisit in-house AM tooling. Jigs, fixtures, and assembly aids printed locally cut lead times from weeks to hours. Hyundai is not breaking new ground here conceptually, but the scale of its operation and the number of processes on display suggest it is treating AM as operational infrastructure rather than a research sideline.

Hanwoo On, senior manager of the Additive Manufacturing Solutions Team at Hyundai Motor Group, put it plainly: "We are rapidly internalizing AM technologies through a growing range of applications across the Group. Beyond vehicle components, we are expanding their use in high-value applications such as equipment consumables and manufacturing tools."

The EV connection

The most interesting long-term play is electric vehicles. Hyundai and Kia are targeting the EV market aggressively, especially in the US. Through May 2026, Hyundai's EV sales grew nearly 25 percent year over year, far outpacing the broader EV market. That pace forces rapid product iteration, and AM is well suited to low-volume, fast-turnaround production.

EV platforms also demand lightweighting and complex geometries that are harder to achieve with conventional tooling. If Hyundai can print brackets, ducts, and battery enclosure components in-house, it shortens development cycles and reduces dependency on external suppliers. The Namyang campus already houses the EV R&D center alongside the AMSC, which makes collaboration between the two groups easier to institutionalize.

Scale and timeline

Namyang itself is massive: over 3 million square feet and more than 10,000 employees. The AMSC is a new addition, not the main event. That context matters because it signals Hyundai is willing to fund AM at a scale that matches its overall R&D budget, not as a pilot project tucked in a corner.

The center is already live and running applications across motorsports, legacy parts, and manufacturing support. Whether that translates into consumer-facing benefits depends on how quickly the engineering culture shifts from "print a prototype" to "print the part." Right now, Hyundai is doing both, and the ratio is moving in the right direction.