Chennai: South Korean automotive major Hyundai Motors has proposed to invest Rs 7,000 crore to manufacture eco-friendly electric cars in Tamil Nadu. The announcement was made at the second edition of the Global Investors’ Meet in Chennai on Wednesday.
Hyundai India, which began production at its massive plant in Sriperumbudur in 1998, announced that the new plant would manufacture ‘Kona’ the company’s first electric car, which was displayed at the GIM.
The new facility will come up near Hyundai’s existing plant in Irungatukkottai, 50 km from the city. Chennai is known as India’s Detroit since it is home to automobile majors like Ford, Hyundai, Daimler, Renault Nissan and BMW.
Addressing the meeting, Hyundai Motor India vice-president B.C. Datta said, “Hyundai India has so far made Rs 23,900 crore investment in Tamil Nadu - the largest investment by an automobile company in the country at a single location. We have invested in Tamil Nadu and only in Tamil Nadu. The company has so far made four phases of investment, including the latest, and all in the state.”
He was speaking at a session on the automobile sector in the country especially in Tamil Nadu and later in Country Seminar- Republic of Korea. Giving details about Kona, Datta said the car could travel up to 350 km per charge and full charge takes just an hour.
He said, “We will manufacture and sell Kona and other electric cars from Tamil Nadu. Since electric cars are the future not just in India but across the globe, we will focus on the sector and the latest investment is exclusively for the purpose.”
The company has also planned to enhance its production capability from 7,00,000 cars to 8,00,000 cars per annum. When Hyundai launched in India, the company used to export 60 per cent of the vehicles manufactured here and used the remaining 40 per cent for domestic consumption.
Global auto markets have been growing and India and Korea are going to become the hub of the automobile industry in the world. Clean energy vehicles, including electric, zero emission and fuel cell vehicles are likely to become the future of the industry. Hyundai is the sixth largest automobile company in the world.
The Indian automobile sector is very attractive and we have been introducing several models, which are successful. The cars manufactured in Tamil Nadu won several awards. The state has the best technical manpower. Central and state governments have announced subsidies on the purchase of electric vehicles. Charging stations, similar to STD booths of the past, would become the order of the day in future, he added.
The company is the largest exporter in India and TN is an ideal place for the automobile sector and the cars manufactured in Tamil Nadu are exported to several countries.
