Hyundai, a major car manufacturer in South Korea, said that it would invest £2 billion in Tamil Nadu over a ten-year period. The automaker, which has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government, stated that the investment will begin with the construction of an electric vehicle (EV) battery pack manufacturing facility with a 178,000 unit annual capacity, which will start operations in a year and add 500 jobs.
“The investment shows our commitment to the India market and the state of Tamil Nadu. We will create employment and support the EV industry in India as well as the hydrogen ecosystem when it comes in the future,” said Hyundai India MD & CEO Unsoo Kim.
The investment will include model spend for both electric as well internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, increase in production volume for both electric and ICE cars, and investment in charging infrastructure (apart from the battery pack assembly unit). It will help make Hyundai’s Irungattukottai plant on the outskirts of Chennai “a hub for e-mobility and EV manufacturing” as well as a “supply centre for regional exports”, said Puneet Anand, associate VP (corporate affairs), Hyundai India.
“We are building an integrated end-to-end EV battery pack assembly base in Tamil Nadu and we are expanding and developing our vendor base by adding new vendors for EV to localise the line,” he added.