Hyundai New Horizons Studio (NHS), focused on the development of Ultimate Mobility Vehicles (UMVs), will open a new Research, Development, and Lab Center in Bozeman, Montana. The New Horizons Studio will get a $20 million investment over the next five years in Hyundai’s Progress for Humanity vision, redefining transportation with accessible, sustainable, and smart mobility solutions.
Located inside Montana State University’s Innovation Campus, the all-new facility will support prototyping, field testing, and application development for UMVs, starting with two projects inspired by the TIGER autonomous vehicle and the Elevate crewed UMV. The machine is conceived as a go-anywhere platform that could prove useful in natural resource management, disaster management, all-urban and rural logistics, construction, mining, and space resource development operations.
The estimated 12,000 to 15,000 sq. ft. facility will be part of MSU’s 42-acre Innovation Campus development, which is home to many technologies and biotech businesses. As a part of this group, NHS Bozeman will also have the opportunity to collaborate and work closely with the MSU student population and have access to state-of-the-art research and world-class professors.
NHS plans to add more than 50 new full-time jobs at the location. Many of the positions will be in the research and development space and will target expertise in mechanical hardware, electrical and electronics engineering, and materials and manufacturing.
The mission is to build vehicles for future customers who want or need to ravel over terrains that are challenging for conventional ground vehicles. The team will initially focus on refining the development, testing, and deployment of two UMV models. The first is an uncrewed transforming intelligent ground excursion robot (similar to what was revealed at CES in 2021) designed to carry various types of payloads while traveling over treacherous terrain. The second will be the two-seat crewed Elevate version with robotic legs that can address challenging driving situations and potentially save lives as the first responder in natural disasters.
The Industry Building that will house NHS Bozeman will break ground starting in June 2022, while the first R&D office officially opens in June 2022.
