Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) and Kia India are two brands owned by the Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Group (HMG), which is actively working to develop a strong presence in India’s electric vehicle (EV) market. This is being done through the launch of new models and the construction of charging stations.
HMG’s executive chairman Euisun Chung, who is now in India, urged both businesses to produce goods that not only meet but also surpass consumer expectations in order to help them realise their growth objectives.
The organisation is deliberately aiming to increase Kia’s market share in India from its existing 6.7% to an astounding 10% in the near future. The company is also concentrating on strengthening its leadership in sport utility vehicles and growing its EV lineup in India.
As part of its long-term strategy, HMG plans to introduce five new EV models by 2032 and, while doing so, increase the number of EV charging stations in its network to 439 by 2027, using the power of its extensive sales network.
Kia, on the other hand, intends to start producing tiny EVs in 2025 that are tailored for the local market. The corporation will gradually roll out a variety of EV models and vehicles with specific purposes. Chung visited the auto factories in Chennai on Monday as well as Hyundai Motor India Engineering, the company’s research and development (R&D) hub in India, to reenergize this long-term strategy.
He discussed mid to long-term growth objectives with local staff during these visits. He then met with the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M. K. Stalin, and the minister of industries, T. R. B. Rajaa, on Tuesday.
The second-largest automaker in India, HMIL, announced in May that it intended to invest Rs 20,000 crore in Tamil Nadu over a ten-year period in order to increase manufacturing and introduce new EV models.
Hyundai Motor and Kia’s partnership
Kia is also developing ideas for infrastructure for EV charging. The ‘Kia 2.0 Strategy’ intends to increase the company’s market share in India from the existing 6.7% in the first half of this year to an ambitious 10% in the future years. The 300-person current sales network will more than double as part of this development, which also includes a wider selection of vehicles.
According to the business, “Chung’s visit to India included a study of India’s strategic relevance as a potential hub for mobility. He stressed how crucial it is to satisfy client expectations while also exceeding them while completing deliveries within the allotted time constraints. He also emphasised HMIE’s crucial contribution to the group’s expansion in the Indian market.
In order to create vehicles exclusively for the Indian market, HMIE works closely with the Hyundai-Kia Namyang R&D centre in South Korea. This partnership is vital to increasing sales in the Indian market. Along with enhancing regional R&D capacities, HMIE will broaden its scope as a centre for study on future forms of transportation, including electrification, driverless vehicles, and the creation of speech recognition systems for regional Indian languages. As a result, last year saw the start of building a new testing facility.
In the Indian market, Hyundai Motor Group has established itself as the second-largest automaker. The company reached sales of 502,821 units in July of this year, indicating an 8.8% rise year over year, following the record-breaking sales of 807,067 units last year. The 873,000 unit forecast for annual sales for this year represents an 8.2% increase over last year.
Sales of electric vehicles, including fully disassembled and built units, nearly doubled from the previous year to 1,181 units. In order to significantly increase EV sales in India, both Hyundai and Kia planned to start mass-producing EV volume models at their Indian operations in the future. With cumulative production through July of this year reaching 630,230 units, which represents an 8.7% rise from the 580,049 units produced last year, production at the Indian factories has also increased significantly.
Hyundai Motor Group has extended its facilities, including the establishment of a new paint shop and major capital expenditures, in tandem with the increased manufacturing capacity, raising its production capacity to 824,000 units. From the prior capacity of 770,000 units, this represents an outstanding increase of 54,000 units.
