News: Hyundai to invest $40 m in India R&D centre

(RTR 20/04/2007) Hyderabad - Hyundai Motor Co. plans to invest $40 million in its research and development centre in southern India by 2009 and ramp up staff by eight times, the managing director of its Indian unit said.

The investment by Hyundai Motor India Ltd., a wholly owned unit of the South Korean car maker, will double the number of engineers to 200 by the end of the fiscal year to March 2008 and have 800 engineers at its Hyderabad centre a year later, H.S. Lheem said late on Thursday.

Hyundai, India's second-biggest car maker, sold 299,513 vehicles in 2006, up 18.5 per cent over the previous year.

Hyundai, which has a plant in the southern city of Chennai, is building a second plant in Chennai to double capacity to 600,000 units a year by the end of 2007.