Hyundai's first car, the Cortina, was created from that partnership. The company quickly established an alliance with one of the industry's oldest automakers, signing a two-year contract with Ford in 1968 to share assembly technology. Still, Chung opted to follow his own convictions, and in 1967, he founded the Hyundai Motor Company. The Korean government at that time believed that it made more sense to import vehicles than produce them domestically, and had made its opinion known.
However, the company regained its footing to distinguish itself as one of Korea's leading construction enterprises during the 1950s.īy the late 1960s, Chung had turned his attention to the automobile industry. Mere months later, the outfit was bombed in the Korean War. In 1947, Chung Ju Yung founded the Hyundai Civil Engineering Company.
