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Hyundai becomes UEFA Champions League Official automotive partner
Five-season deal runs from 2026/27 to 2030/31 as Hyundai expands its European football presence
MUMBAI: Hyundai is taking its football partnership into extra time for five full seasons. Hyundai Motor Company has signed a multi-year agreement to become the Official Automotive Partner of the UEFA Champions League, extending its long-running involvement in football to Europe’s biggest club competition.
The partnership begins with the 2026/27 season and runs through the end of the 2030/31 season, giving Hyundai a presence across five seasons of the 36-club tournament.
Football is hardly new territory for the automaker. Hyundai has supported the sport for almost 30 years, with its involvement spanning major international tournaments as well as clubs and football associations. The Champions League deal now takes that relationship to the highest level of European club football.
The partnership also comes with a distinctly European angle. Hyundai develops and engineers vehicles for European customers while drawing on its global operations, much like the Champions League brings players from around the world together to compete across Europe.
Hyundai President and CEO José Muñoz said the Champions League offers the company an opportunity to connect with football fans across Europe and showcase its vehicles and technology. He also noted that he is from Madrid and has followed the competition throughout his life.
The deal is being pursued under Hyundai’s ‘Progress for Humanity’ vision, with the company saying the partnership will be used to connect communities and promote mobility and technology across Europe.
For Hyundai Motor Europe CEO Xavier Martinet, the Champions League also provides a stage for the company’s latest European product offensive. The automaker is launching five new models in Europe during the 2026/27 season, led by its new all-electric IONIQ 3.
The IONIQ 3 is being positioned as Hyundai’s first major product in the partnership. Designed in Europe for European customers, the compact electric hatchback began production at Hyundai’s İzmit plant in Türkiye in August, becoming the facility’s first battery-electric vehicle to enter production.
The model has a claimed drag coefficient of 0.263 Cd and up to 497 km of WLTP range, alongside 441 litres of boot space and a 14.6-inch display featuring Hyundai’s PLEOS Connect infotainment system.
The IONIQ 3 enters Europe’s highly competitive compact-car segment as Hyundai expands its electric offering while retaining a broad powertrain strategy covering battery-electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen fuel-cell electric and internal combustion vehicles.
Hyundai’s European footprint stretches back more than 30 years. Its European Technical Centre and Design Centre are based in Rüsselsheim, Germany, while manufacturing takes place in the Czech Republic and Türkiye. The company sells vehicles across 42 European markets through more than 2,000 sales and aftersales outlets.
The Champions League is expected to give Hyundai access to a substantial global audience, with the company citing research that around one in three people worldwide is interested in the competition. Beyond vehicles, Hyundai plans to use the platform to highlight areas including robotics, physical AI, software and smart mobility.
Guy-Laurent Epstein, Co-Managing Director of UC3, UEFA’s joint venture with European football clubs, welcomed Hyundai to the competition’s commercial line-up, pointing to the automaker’s nearly three-decade association with football and its shared focus on bringing people together.
