Hyundai to invest $2.45 bn for EV production expansion in India
Hyundai Motor has announced that it will invest 200 billion rupees ($2.45 bn) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu over the next ten years to bolster the country’s electric vehicle production. This is in line with recent international advancements.
As for India, Hyundai plans to increase capacity at its factory near Chennai to 850,000 vehicles per year from approximately 775,000. In addition, the automaker’s Indian subsidiary, Hyundai Motor India, will establish a battery pack assembly unit with an annual capacity of 178,000 units and install 100 EV charging stations across the southern state in the next five years.
The investment plan follows India’s federal government’s recent announcement to raise taxes on imported vehicles to encourage local manufacturing.
Hyundai is also developing a local vendor base for EV parts instead of importing them, as the government’s production incentive scheme only applies when manufacturing is done within the country, according to Puneet Anand, a senior executive for corporate affairs quoted by Reuters. India’s EV industry is expanding, with domestic automakers Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, as well as global rivals Nissan Motor and Renault, launching numerous EV models.
Hyundai plans to introduce five new EV models in the third-largest car market in the world and aims to capture a 20% market share by 2032. However, electric vehicles account for only 1% of India’s total car sales in 2022. The federal government hopes to raise that figure to 30% by 2030. Hyundai currently holds a 15% share of India’s ICE passenger vehicle market, making it the second-largest automaker in the country behind Maruti Suzuki India, the local unit of Japan’s Suzuki Motor.
Back in South Korea, Hyundai is also investing in electric car making and announced a new all-electric car plant in Ulsan this week. Construction of the factory will begin in the fourth quarter of this year, and production will start in the second half of 2025 with an annual capacity of 150,000 electric cars. The new facility will be Hyundai’s first new domestic plant in 29 years.
Hyundai Motor had only unveiled extensive investment plans in April to become one of the world’s top three electric car manufacturers by 2030. To this end, the South Korean group wants to invest up to 24 trillion won (equivalent to around €16.6 bn) to increase production and exports. The group with Hyundai Motor, Kia and the supplier Hyundai Mobis aims explicitly to offer 31 electric models, with many battery-electric cars to be built in South Korea.
Part of the announced 24 trillion won (previously, there was talk of 21 trillion won) is also to flow into developing a new e-platform. For the electric cars, the platform is called eM and is expected to debut in 2025. According to an earlier announcement, the eM platform will serve as the basis for electric cars “in all segments” (i.e. from small cars to five-metre-long sedans and SUVs) and will offer 50 per cent more range than the group’s current electric cars.
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