Hyundai Motor India on Monday said it would invest Rs.400 crore over the next three years to set up a diesel engine manufacturing plant with an installed capacity of 1.50 lakh units annually.
The company will expand its vehicle production capacity to 6.7 lakh units by next year at its two facilities and plans to roll out three new models in 2011.
“The feasibility study for the diesel engine plant has been completed and we will announce the location in the next few months. The plant is proposed to have an annual installed capacity of 1.5 lakh units,” Hyundai Motor India Managing Director and CEO Han Woo Park told PTI.
The plant will manufacture three different engines of 1.1 litre, 1.4 litre and 1.6 litre capacities only for the domestic market.
When asked about the investment, Mr. Park said: “Investment will be about Rs.400 crore... The plant will be operational in 2013 or early 2014.”
The company imports its diesel engines from Korea for its models such as ‘i20' and ‘Verna' About 10 per cent of its sales come from the diesel model.
On its production capacity, he said, “Next year we are increasing our capacity to 6.7 lakh units from 6.3 lakh units by only increasing the efficiency and de-bottlenecking of operation. It will cost us negligible investment.”
He said the company will launch 2-3 new models every year in order to expand its position in the growing Indian auto market.
“In 2011, we will launch model across all segments and this will be manufactured locally here,” the Managing Director said.
About the proposed 800-cc car, Mr. Park said: “The small car is under development... It will be launched in 2011 or early 2012 and will be positioned below ‘Santro'”.
