Seoul, Nov 25: South Korea's largest automaker Hyundai plans to expand its joint venture in Beijing to produce 600,000 cars a year in china by 2007, the company said today. Beijing Hyundai Motor Co, a 50-50 joint venture set up late last year with Beijing automotive industry holding co, plans to produce 60,000 cars this year.
"Beijing Hyundai Motor plans to expand its annual production capacity to 600,000 cars by 2007," Hyundai Motor Co spokesman Jake Jang said.
The company originally planned to increase its annual production capacity to 200,000 units by 2005 and 500,000 units by 2010.
But under the new plan, the capacity will increase to 150,000 in 2004 and 300,000 in 2005 to meet the growing demand in the Chinese market for Hyundai cars, Jang said.
In the 10 months to October, Beijing Hyundai sold 43,000 Sonata mid-sized sedans.
Hyundai Motor also plans to put in 1.5 billion dollars to set up a plant in either Czech Republic or Slovakia to produce 300,000 cars annually, industry sources said.
Bureau Report