Chennai: To cater to the demand of the domestic as well as the export markets, country's second largest car maker Hyundai Motors India Ltd's (HMIL) second plant began operation here today with the company already investing one billion dollars and an additional production capacity of three lakh units.

With the investment of one billion dollars and commissioning of the second plant besides the existing plant Chennai 1 with annual production of 3,00,000 units, we will now be able to produce twice as many cars, taking its capacity to six lakh units per annum, company Chairman Chung Mong-Koo said here.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi inaugurated the plant, which was attended by Communications and Information Technology Minister A Raja along with several other dignitaries.

At present, HMIL, a wholly-owned subsdiary of South Korea-based Hyundai Motors, markets 34 variants of passenger cars across segments. The Santro in the B segment, Getz Prime, i10 in the B+ segment, the Accent and Verna in the C segment, the Elantra in the D segment, the Sonata Embera in the E segment and the Tucson in the SUV segment.

The company now plans to increase its export destinations from 73 countries at present to 90. The South Korean motor manufacturer which had made its way into India in 1998 registered a growth of 41.4 per cent at 37,701 units in the last month over the same period a year ago.

Source : UNI