Connected Car
Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun visits Hyundai and Kia's R&D center in Hyderabad during his 2-day visit to India from Aug. 7 to 8, 2023 (Courtesy of Hyundai Motor)Kia Niro, Kia Sorento and Hyundai Motor's IONIQ 6 (Courtesy of Hyundai Motor)Chairman Chung Euisun (third from right) poses for a photo during the world premiere of IONIQ 5 N (Courtesy of Hyundai Motor)Hyundai Motor Group must become “the first mover” in India, which has emerged as the next fierce battlefield for global car makers after the country rose to the world’s No. 3 auto market last year, urged the South Korean auto giant’s chief during his two-day trip to India this week.Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Euisun has visited India for the first time in four years, and it was also his first trip to the country since his chairman inauguration in 2020.His visit comes after the Korean car giant became the No. 2 auto seller with a 21.1% share in India in 2022 after selling its record of 807,067 units.The world’s most populous country also joined the global top 3 auto market club last year after 4.76 million vehicles were sold there, of which 3.80 million were passenger cars. Stalin during his visit to India to discuss various partnership opportunities.Hyundai Motor and the state of Tamil Nadu, where Hyundai Motor’s car factory is located, signed a memorandum of understanding in May to spend 200 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) for 10 years to build an EV ecosystem in the state.Under the term, they will seek to build an EV battery pack plant, expand its EV lineup and install 100 fast EV chargers in Tamil Nadu.To meet the growing EV demand in India, Hyundai Motor also plans to build a total 439 EV charging stations across the country by 2027, while Kia also build its own EV charging infrastructure in the country. The smaller sibling recently pledged to up its market share in India to 10% from the current 6.7% as of the first half of this year by producing more models from its Indian car plant in Anantapur after celebrating the milestone of producing 1 million cars from the factory early last month.Il-Gue Kim at black0419@hankyung.com Sookyung Seo edited this article.