Beginning August 16th
a naming campaign would start for the new family car. Hyundai Motor India
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Y K Koo told journalists that the
company will be launching 8 new products between 2018-2020 including an
electric SUV. The electric SUV will be launched in the second half of 2019. The
electric SUV will be imported as a completely knocked down unit. This plant
will then be producing electric vehicles.
Incidentally, Hyundai Motor
India is also celebrating 20 years of its existence in the country. It was in
1996 that the South Korean auto major had invested US 3.1 billion to set up a
plant near Chennai and the vendors had invested another US $ 1.5 billion. In
1998 the iconic Santro was launched with Bollywood heart throb Shahrukh Khan as
its brand ambassador. The rest, they say is history. Santro, the tall boy
designed small car became an instant hit and Hyundai a name unknown among
Indian families became a household name.
Spread across a total area of 536 acres and along with
advanced manufacturing 4.0 production equipped with over 590 generation 4
robots, quality and testing capabilities along with flexible engine plants, Hyundai
Motor India today has a production capacity of 7.13 lakh units which will
increase to 7.50 lakh units in 2019 by smart engineering. The plant is running
at almost 100pc capacity utilisation. The company plans to roll out 10 million
cars in the first half of 2021.
Today the company produces and
sells cars like the Eon, Grand i10, Xcent, Elite i20-Live Premium, i20-Live
Active, Verna, Elantra, Creta and Tucson at the plant. The company is the
second largest car manufacturer in India and the largest car exporter in the
country.
The Hyundai plant near Chennai
consists of two plants with modern press shops, body shops, paint shops,
welding shops, engine and transmission shops, assembly areas and delivery
locations.