Kumho Tire Co. opened its new research and development center near Seoul earlier this month.
Located in Jigok-dong of Giheung-gu in Yongin City, the R&D center covers some 75,300 square feet of space housing R&D and testing operations. The new facility will be the centerpiece of Kumho’s global R&D efforts, which have some 600 researchers and technicians.
That global R&D network includes Kumho Tire American Technical Center in Akron; Kumho Tire Europe Technical Centre in Frankfurt; Kumho Tire China Technical Centre in Tianjin; and Kumho Tire Performance Center in Gwangju, South Korea.
The newly completed facility, said Kumho, “will serve as the main R&D center in charge of all basic research and product development. The existing Gwangju R&D center has been transformed into a performance center for evaluation and quality monitoring of finished products, completing a two-track system to maximize R&D capabilities.”
“The most sure way of becoming a global tire company is to secure world-class technical prowess,” said Kumho Tires CEO Kim Chang-Kyu, “and we will continue to strive to improve our competitive power with expansion of overseas factories and increasing OE supplies to overseas automobile makers, with the completion of the new R&D center.”
