Answer: Hyundai Wia said on Sept. 7, 2026 it will supply a driverless forklift that loads and unloads pallets without an operator, first at Kia AutoLand Hwaseong in May 2027. The truck is rated to 4 tonnes and about 6.5 km/h, with LiDAR, vision, and four-side safety scanners under the H-Motion brand.
Hyundai Wia is a Hyundai Motor Group affiliate that builds manufacturing equipment and mobile robots. On Sept. 7, 2026 the group newsroom said Hyundai Wia will supply a fully unmanned forklift that navigates a plant floor and performs pallet loading and unloading without a driver. The first installation is scheduled for May 2027 at Kia AutoLand Hwaseong in South Korea, developed with Kia's forming-system production-technology team. Hyundai Wia says this is the first fully driverless forklift supply for a manufacturing site in Korea.
Published specs from that announcement: maximum load about 4 tonnes; maximum travel speed about 6.5 km/h, set to plant safety limits; LiDAR, vision sensors, and safety scanners on all four sides; digital-twin path planning; and ICP pallet recognition that the company claims can lock onto a pallet shifted up to 250 mm or rotated more than 10 degrees. The truck is also described as correcting attitude on sloped container approaches. Those figures are Hyundai Wia's claims. This desk did not open a model data sheet, a B56.5 or ISO 3691-4 certificate, or a signed site acceptance package.
The forklift sits in Hyundai Wia's H-Motion line beside AMRs and parking robots the company says are already commercialized. The release frames H-Motion for global manufacturing sites, not only captive Hyundai and Kia plants. A non-captive buyer still has to treat May 2027 Hwaseong as the published first clock, not as proof of U.S. list price, lead time, or spare-parts stock.
Autonomous forklifts and AMRs still need drive and load wheels sized to payload, duty cycle, and floor condition. CasterHQ stocks keyed AGV drive wheels and AGV 24/7-duty casters for continuous automation floors, plus robotics casters for cart and transfer interfaces. CasterHQ does not sell Hyundai Wia forklifts or H-Motion fleets, and a wheel order is not a claim that any vehicle meets a named safety standard.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Supplier | Hyundai Wia (Hyundai Motor Group) |
| Announcement date | Sept. 7, 2026 |
| First site | Kia AutoLand Hwaseong, South Korea |
| First application clock | May 2027 |
| Rated load (company claim) | Up to 4 tonnes |
| Max travel speed (company claim) | About 6.5 km/h |
| Sensing (company claim) | LiDAR, vision, four-side safety scanners |
| Brand line | H-Motion mobile robots |
What this means for caster and wheel buyers
- Put May 2027 Hwaseong on the quote calendar as the published first production clock, not as a U.S. ship date.
- Ask any autonomous-forklift bidder for rated load, max speed, and which sensors are standard versus options, then match drive-wheel load and duty to those numbers.
- Require written evidence for ISO 3691-4 or ANSI/ITSDF B56.5 claims; do not treat a newsroom page as the certificate.
- If a truck will enter containers or cross dock plates, specify wheel compounds for slope, gap, and impact, not only flat warehouse floors.
- Separate H-Motion brand-line packages from the forklift's own spare-parts and wheel replacement path.
Limits
Load, speed, sensor suite, ICP pallet-offset claims (250 mm / 10 degrees), digital-twin path planning, May 2027 Hwaseong clock, Korea-first claim, and H-Motion lineup statements are from Hyundai Motor Group's Sept. 7, 2026 Hyundai Wia newsroom page. This desk did not open a model data sheet, a safety-certificate PDF, a customer contract, or a U.S. price list. The photograph is a Jungheinrich ERC automated pallet stacker stand-in from Wikimedia Commons; it is not a Hyundai Wia or Kia product photo.
Sources
- Hyundai Motor Group / Hyundai Wia, Sept. 7, 2026: Hyundai Wia driverless forklift / H-Motion lineup
