Hyundai Motor, the nation’s largest carmaker, said Wednesday that it will build information technology infrastructure in southwestern China to expand vehicle data processing for the development of self-driving cars and marketing.

The carmaker signed a strategic agreement with the Guizhou provincial government Tuesday to build a big data center, with its vice chairman and heir apparent Chung Eui-sun attending the event. 

Hyundai currently has a big data center in Uiwang, north of Seoul.

The envisioned project in China is the carmaker’s first overseas big data center.

Starting with China, Hyundai plans to build its own data processing centers overseas to expand its efforts in the connected car business, the company said without providing details.

Hyundai’s new data processing center will start operating in June next year. It will be built at the Guian New Area, a state-designated area for the big data industry, in Guizhou province, it added.

The South Korean carmaker is the first automobile maker to enter the Chinese industrial cluster. It expects to expand further cooperation with the provincial government in setting a national standard for processing transportation data, and also to work with global IT retail giants such as Amazon and Baidu which have already set up local operations there.

Big data centers are an essential part of the company’s efforts to enhance vehicle connectivity, as they analyze and process data, and reproduce information for an efficient and optimized driving experience. Hyundai plans to use the data processed from the center in China to improve product quality, customer services and management decisions.

“The decision to establish a Big Data Center in this strategically important part of China indicates an acceleration of Hyundai Motor’s development of connected car technologies,” Chung was quoted as saying by Hyundai officials.

“Advancing our leadership in this rapidly growing area will contribute to Hyundai Motor’s continued growth in the Chinese market,” he said.

On the sidelines of the signing ceremony, Hyundai also signed a memorandum of understanding with Cisco for enhanced cooperation on connected car business.

Since April, the two companies have been jointly developing a service platform for connected car operating systems and network securities.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)