Hyundai to make India global hub for small cars

Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) plans to invest $1 billion overall in its second plant, which commenced operations here on Saturday. This will further strengthen its resolve to make India its global hub for manufacturing small cars.

As part of its expansion programme, the company has so far invested $750 million and plans to invest the balance over the next couple of years. HMIL, which kick-started its operations by breaking ground for its first plant near Chennai on December 10, 1996, had invested $733 million during first phase.

“We have recorded huge success in India over the last ten years. Our new plant will be the platform for future growth. I’m sure HMIL will play its role perfectly as a global manufacturing hub for all of our small car models,” Mong-Koo Chung, chairman & CEO, Hyundai Motor said here on Thursday.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu chief minister, M Karunanidhi inaugurated the second plant operations amidst the presence senior officials of the state government as well as from Hyundai, besides R C Panda, Union secretary, ministry for heavy industries.

“Hyundai had set up a plant initially with a capacity of 1.3 lakh units per annum. In less than ten years since then, it has now scaled up its capacity to 6.3 lakh units per annum, which is a record growth for any car manufacturer in India,” Mr Karunanidhi said. read full story