In all, the new facility would see an investment of US$1 billion. The new plant, which would primarily be used for producing Hyundai ‘i10’, would double the capacity of cars manufactured by the company in the country to 600,000 by 2009.

R&D centre
“Our new plant will be the platform for future growth,” Hyundai Motor Co Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Moong-Koo Chung said. It will also be separately setting up an R&D centre in Hyderabad at a cost of US$ 40 million and the centre will focus on creating suitable designs for cars for Indian conditions.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd President Ashok Jha told reporters that besides $1 billion investment by Hyundai, its vendors would be investing US$ 562 million.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi inaugurated the plant, located adjacent to Hyundai’s existing facility here. Further, the company said, it has no plans to compete with Tata Motors’ Nano. “Right now, we are not looking at competing with Nano in pricing,” Mr Mong-Koo Chung told reporters after the inauguration.

Mr Mong-Koo Chung, however, said that the company was looking at coming up with a product that would be priced lesser than its best seller ‘Santro’, but that would take at least three years.