Hyundai Motor’s Chung visits India amid Indian arm’s IPO talk

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman and Chief Executive Chung Euisun visited the headquarters of the group’s Indian operations earlier this week and met its employeees, according to industry sources, stoking market speculation the South Korean automotive group might accelerate the reported IPO of the Indian unit.

Chung on April 23 held a town hall meeting with some 400 employees from across India at the headquarter office in Gurgan, Haryana, on the outskirts of New Delhi and discussed long to medium-term strategies, according to the sources.

It marked Chung’s first visit to the Indian operations since he inspected the manufacturing facilities there in August of last year as India emerged as Hyundai’s largest overseas production base.

Last year, Hyundai Motor India churned out 1.1 million units of cars. It accounted for 29.5% of Hyundai Motor Group’s global output, the largest portion of its overseas production.

Hyundai is tipped to spend around $3.3 billion to expand its manufacturing facilities in India over the coming years. In line with the investment plan, Reuters in February reported that Hyundai Motor India was in the early stages of talks to go public later this year to raise at least $3 billion.

In response to the report, the automaker said in a regulatory filing that it was studying various options, including listing overseas subsidiaries, to improve its corporate value as a global company.

Hyundai Motor Group is India’s second-largest carmaker, controlling 15% of the market. Passenger car sales in the world’s third-largest automobile market is projected to grow to 5 million units by 2030, versus 4.1 million units in 2023.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE LAUNCH IN INDIA

Hyundai Motor Co. will launch its first electric vehicle model in India in the second half of this year and plans to expand its EV lineup tailored to India to five by 2030, two years earlier than the original schedule.

Kia Corp. will enter the India’s EV market next year with a small EV model.

Overall, Hyundai Motor will also expand its annual production capacity of both combustion engine and EVs in India to 1 million units next year. Including that of Kia Corp., the Hyundai Motor Group’s production capacity in India is expected to grow to 1.5 million units per year.

“Considering the importance of the Indian market, we will spare no effort in providing active support to our Indian unit,” Chung was quoted as saying at the town hall meeting.

“It will play an active role in electrification by developing electric vehicles specialized for the Indian market and expanding electric vehicle infrastructure.”

The Indian government has pledged to boost EV sales to 30% of automobile sales in the country by 2030 from 1% in 2022.

The automotive group established its Indian arm in 1996 and began mass production of the compact hatchback Santro, its first model customized to India, in 1998.

Last year, it acquired General Motor’s Talegaon plant in the western state of Maharashtra in 2023, which became Hyundai Motor’s third production base in the country.

Kia operates a plant in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh in India.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article