New Delhi - India's second largest car maker, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) said it is planning to make India its global small car hub as part of its strategy to become the No.1 player in the country's growing automobile market.


According to HMIL managing director and CEO Heung Soo Lheem, parent company South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. has decided to make all its small cars in India and make it the company's global small car hub.
"Our mother company has decided that all small cars will be produced from in India in future and so all research and development (R&D) for small car will happen here," Lheem said.
"We are serious about the micro-car market and from April this year we have undertaken a massive feasibility study to understand the Indian customers' mind - driving conditions, styling cues and technical specs - for the proposed small car," he said.
According to Lheem, the small car would not compete with Tata Motors' Nano, which is being touted as the world' cheapest car with a showroom price tag of $2500. "Our small car will be price-competitive and exclusively target the Indian market, but may be followed by a global launch later," he said.
In this regard, Lheem said, design and technical analysis work on the small car project has already commenced at its R&D center in Hyderabad. The R&D team, he said, would be ramped up from the present 250 to 800 by 2009 and would coordinate with Hyundai's global R&D headquarters at Ulsan in Korea.

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