Cars for the world

Chung Ju-yung was extremely business-minded from an early age. As a youth, he had to flee from North Korea to Seoul, where he began selling rice from a bicycle. Born the son of a rice farmer, Chung knew all about that, but technology fascinated him more. In 1940, he opened a car service shop bearing the name of what would later become his global company: “Hyundai”. The name means “modern” in Korean.

Chung pursued a strict regimen in his workshop. He demanded his workers complete repairs within six hours, while others were scheduling six days. Never one for standing still, Chung then founded a construction company in 1947, with most of its orders coming from post-war reconstruction work. In the 1960s, he enjoyed the support of the dictator Park and was able to build Hyundai into an international conglomerate (Chaebol).

By the mid-1960s, Chung Ju-yung had decided to become an automaker. The first cars were already being assembled in Korea ten years earlier. The Ha Dong-hwan Motor Workshop had been producing military jeeps for the U.S. Army…

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