Country’s second largest car-maker Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) plans to increase its passenger vehicle production capacity to eight lakh units from seven lakh at its Sriperumbudur factory near Chennai.

The proposed capacity expansion may generate job opportunities for 700 people, an official statement said.

Top officials of HMIL that included YK Koo, Managing Director and CEO; BC Datta, Vice-President (Corporate Affairs); and N Ramesh, Assistant Vice-President (Finance), met the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at the Secretariat on Monday and sought the State government’s support for the expansion.

Sops sought

A memorandum of understanding is expected to be signed during the State government’s second edition of Global Investors Meet (GIM), which is to be held during January 23-24 next year in Chennai. An official statement quoting Koo said the HMIL officials met the Chief Minister in his office and promised to increase production capacity by another 100,000 units including 50,000 CKD (completely knocked down) units. HMIL officials sought incentives along with support in the areas of power, water and transport.

Hyundai will be shipping CKDs to some select markets instead of CBUs due to higher tax for CBUs in those export markets. Since CKD exports will increase, the company will have space for higher production that can be used to meet the domestic demand. Hence it has planned to increase capacity.

Newer models

At the Sriperumbudur factory, Hyundai will produce more than 10 models including electric vehicles (on the CKD mode in the initial stage).

Earlier this year, Koo had said that Hyundai was planning to launch nine models including two face lifts, two new segment vehicles, four full model changes and one electric vehicle during 2018-20 in India. The launch of these models will entail development expenses of ₹6,000-6,500 crore.

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