Hyundai to expand production capacity, launches IONIQ 5 EV

NEW DELHI: Hyundai Motor India is going to increase the production capacity of its Chennai plant to 8.2 lakh. Last year, the power at the Chennai plant was 7.01 lakh, its managing director and chief executive officer Unsoo Kim said on Wednesday.

About 20% of the vehicle in the Chennai plant will be electric vehicles, Kim said while launching the company’s electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) Hyundai IO NIQ 5, an SKD model in India during the Auto Expo -- Motor Show 2023.

Kim said Hyundai’s first model offered on battery electric vehicle designed to offer a range of 631 km once charged. Priced at Rs 44.95 lakh, the car manufacturer is offering the Semi knockdown (SKD) model in India due to the non-availability of a battery.

An SKD car is dismantling and packaging up certain vehicle parts for shipment to other assembly plants where the parts will then be reassembled. The SUV is an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) Level -2. This comes as automakers are transitioning towards self-driven assistance vehicles.

Under advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) Level 2, the vehicles have advanced steering, acceleration, and braking in specified circumstances Highlighting the success of Hyundai in introducing ethanol cars in Brazil and other countries, Kim said Hyundai has the capability to roll out hydrogen-powered vehicles but it depends on the availability of fuel stations. He said Hyundai is not coming up with CNG cars as the price of CNG in the market is relatively high.