More Stories

Informist, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025

 

By Aman Aryan and Anand JC

 

NEW DELHI – The underdevelopment of key technology components such as advanced sensor and radar technology in India remains a stumbling block in Hyundai Motor India Ltd.'s plans to completely localise its manufacturing operations in the country, Gopalakrishnan C.S., the chief manufacturing officer of Hyundai Motor India told Informist on Saturday. Hyundai's localisation drive has currently reached 92%, except for certain components which it continues to import, the company official said. 

The company's localisation efforts have been undertaken to cut down material and project costs, apart from de-risking supply chain issues, Gopalakrishnan said. In addition, this is also helping the company remain competitive in the market, he said.

Hyundai Motor on Friday showcased the electric variant of its sport utility vehicle Creta at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025. The Creta EV has been priced starting INR 1.80 million ex-showroom. The company will launch three more electric vehicles. However, Gopalakrishnan did not clarify the timeline, or the segment in which they would be launched.

Gopalakrishnan said the automaker has been making efforts towards local assembly of battery packs for the newly launched vehicle. Going forward, the company's parent Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. has made an agreement with the local supplier for cell manufacturing. Hyundai Mobis is making the battery packs for Creta EV, Krishnan said, and added that the battery pack is being assembled at its unit in Chennai.

Hyundai currently has a 34% market share in mid-size sport utility vehicles, 20% in compact sport utility vehicle segment, and 18% in premium compact variants. Hyundai's manufacturing plants are equipped to produce both the internal combustible engine and the electric variant of Creta, Gopalakrishnan said. The company feels its integrated facility is flexible enough to meet any incremental demand requirement.  

The Chennai unit has an annual production capacity of 840,000 units. In December 2023, Hyundai acquired GM Motor's plant at Talegaon near Pune in Maharashtra. This plant will help the company add a capacity of 250,000 units, taking the total capacity to 1.1 million units per year by 2027-28 (Apr-Mar). Currently, the company's capacity utilisation is 90%.

The company aims to create another global manufacturing unit similar to the one in Chennai as it tries to set up a local manufacturing ecosystem in its Pune unit, Gopalakrishnan said. Apart from battery pack assembly, the carmaker is also focusing on the local production of high-technology components such as panoramic sunroofs, Gopalakrishnan said.

 

For Jul-Sept, Hyundai India had reported a net profit of INR 13.76 billion on a revenue of INR 172.60 billion. Friday, shares of the company ended at INR 1,790 on the National Stock Exchange, down 1.5%.  End

 

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000 

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.