Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) is expected to announce its next phase of mega investment, said to be not less than ₹15,000 crore, for making electric vehicles and building associated ecosystem and in alternative fuel technologies like hydrogen mobility.

HMIL, the Indian arm of a South Korean automaker, will be signing a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday for the proposed large investment.

The proposed investments of “₹15,000 crore to ₹20,000 crore” would be spread over the next 7-10 years, sources in Tamil Nadu government have told businessline.

HMIL has so far invested over $4 billion in the country. Its factory in Sriperumbudur near Chennai is Hyundai Group’s first fully integrated production facility, and second-largest facility outside Korea, capable of producing 740,000 cars. It is also a leading exporter of passenger vehicles from India.

In 2022, the company’s cumulative sales were at 7,00,811 units — an increase of 10.3 per cent over 2021 sales. Total volumes in 2022 included domestic sales of 552,511 units and exports of 148,300 units.

Also read: Hyundai India to bring in hybrid cars on government offering tax rebates

According to the ratings and research company, Crisil, Hyundai posted an operating revenue of ₹47,043 crore for the year ended March 31, 2022, compared with ₹42,410 crore in FY21.

Upbeat on EV

Last month, the Hyundai Group announced that it would “significantly expand” the global EV volume to 3.64 million units by 2030 as part of its vision to become one of the world’s top 3 EV manufacturers by 2030 through the combined sales of Hyundai Motor, Kia and Genesis electric models. The Group plans to have a total line-up of 31 EV models in response to the growing demand for EVs.

The group is also betting big on the hydrogen mobility and has been developing fuel-cell vehicles.

Also read: Eye-opener, for an electric from Hyundai 

The adoption of electric vehicles in the passenger vehicle segment in India is slowly picking up amid the improving charging infrastructure in the country.

EV race hots up

Currently, electric PV penetration in India is estimated at two percent. During the last fiscal, more than 40,000 electric PVs (including electric cars and SUVs) were sold with Tata Motors garnering about 80 per cent of the share in total volumes.

However, more players plan to launch electric models in the sub-₹10 lakh category to drive faster adoption of EVs. MG Motor India’s new electric micro hatchback Comet carries a price tag of ₹7.98 lakh, which is the lowest-priced electric hatchback in India now. Tata’s electric hatchback Tiago comes at a starting price of ₹8.69 lakh.

At present, HMIL is selling the electric car Kona, and an all-electric SUV Ioniq 5 in premium categories. However, it has announced BEV (battery electric vehicle) Platform E-GMP (Electric Global Modular Platform) for India. Ioniq5 was the first model introduced on the E-GMP Platform. 

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