Hyundai is taking its football ambitions to a whole new level, becoming the Official Automotive Partner of the UEFA Champions League under a new multi-year agreement running from the 2026/27 season through to the end of the 2030/31 season. The partnership gives Hyundai a front-row seat at Europe’s biggest club football competition, while bringing together two organisations that share an increasingly global outlook with deep European roots.

For Hyundai, football is hardly unfamiliar territory. The company has been involved in the sport for almost three decades, supporting major international tournaments as well as clubs and football associations around the world. Now, the UEFA Champions League adds another major chapter to that story.

“Football has been part of Hyundai for almost 30 years. It brings people together like almost nothing else, across languages and borders and generations,” said José Muñoz, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company. For Muñoz, who hails from Madrid and has followed the competition throughout his life, the partnership also carries a personal connection.

With around one in three people worldwide interested in the UEFA Champions League, the competition offers Hyundai access to an enormous audience. The 36-club tournament will provide a platform not only for the company’s vehicles, but also for its wider vision of future mobility, including robotics, physical AI, software and smart mobility solutions.

The partnership comes at an important moment for Hyundai’s European operations. The company has maintained a strong presence on the continent for more than 30 years, with vehicle design and engineering carried out at its European Technical Centre and European Design Centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany.

Production is also firmly established in Europe, with manufacturing plants in the Czech Republic and Türkiye. Hyundai vehicles are sold across 42 European markets through more than 2,000 sales and aftersales outlets. That European connection is particularly relevant to Hyundai’s latest electric offering, the IONIQ 3.

The compact all-electric hatchback is the company’s opening automotive star for its Champions League partnership. Designed in Europe specifically for European customers, the IONIQ 3 made its debut at Milan Design Week earlier this year and entered production at Hyundai’s İzmit plant in August. It is also the first of five major new models Hyundai plans to introduce in Europe during the 2026/27 season.

The IONIQ 3 enters one of Europe’s most competitive vehicle segments, bringing Hyundai’s latest electric technology into the compact hatchback class. Its Aero Hatch design contributes to a claimed drag coefficient of just 0.263 Cd, while the vehicle offers up to 497 km of WLTP range. Practicality hasn’t been forgotten either, with 441 litres of boot space, generous interior room and a large 14.6-inch display running Hyundai’s latest PLEOS Connect infotainment system.

Rather than betting everything on a single powertrain, Hyundai is also maintaining a broad strategy for European customers. Its line-up spans battery-electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen fuel-cell electric and internal combustion powertrains. The message is simple: there isn’t necessarily one answer to how Europeans should drive. The IONIQ 3 also arrives on the back of growing recognition for Hyundai’s electrified models. The INSTER was named the 2025 World Electric Vehicle, while the IONIQ 9 picked up the title of Germany’s 2026 Premium Car of the Year.

Hyundai says the Champions League partnership fits naturally with its broader ‘Progress for Humanity’ vision, using mobility and football as ways to connect people across cultures and communities. For fans, that could mean more than simply seeing Hyundai vehicles around the stadium. The company intends to use the partnership as a platform to showcase where it believes mobility is heading next.

“The UEFA Champions League and Hyundai are both driven by progress, performance, and the ambition to bring people together,” said Xavier Martinet, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Europe. “We are entering this partnership with our strongest line-up yet.” UEFA’s joint venture with European Football Clubs, UC3, is equally enthusiastic about the new relationship. “We are delighted to welcome Hyundai as an official partner of the UEFA Champions League,” said Guy-Laurent Epstein, Co-Managing Director of UC3. “Hyundai has a proud history of supporting football at the highest level and a clear belief in its power to bring people together.”