Hyundai will move European production of its i10 and i20 models from India to Turkey next year.
The move from Chennai to Izmit is the result of a EUR475m (US$612m) investment aimed at doubling production at the Hyundai Assan joint venture owned by the carmaker and Turkey’s Kibar Holding, to 200,000 vehicles a year.
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It will also mean that 90% of the cars Hyundai sells in Europe are built ‘locally’. The Czech Republic factory at NoŠovice makes 300,000 vehicles a year for local and export markets.
Both European facilities are expected to be running flat out as Hyundai struggles to meet demand. Globally, the brand sold 4.4m vehicles last year, up 8.6% on 2011. The 144,000 sales in Europe in 2012 were up 10% in a market which dropped 7% – market share was 3.4%.
In the first quarter of 2013, Hyundai was ahead 3.5% year on year.
Tony Whitehorn, president of Hyundai UK, said: “We have reached a point where demand is ahead of our global production capacity which in the current climate is not a bad place to be.
“The company is looking at the capacity issues and in the meantime we will concentrate on the brand image. In a very short space of time, over the past four to five years, we have gone from a budget brand to mainstream. Our networks, marketing and the way we deal with customers has to reflect this.
“In the UK we are finding that customers’ expectations from us are increasing all the time and so we have to manage this ready for the next sales push in 2015.”
