PUNE, India — At Talegaon, near Pune in India's Maharashtra state, Hyundai Motor's new plant spreads across a 1.2-square-kilometer site, equivalent to 166 soccer fields. Pune, about 120 kilometers southeast of Mumbai, India's economic hub, ranks among the country's eight largest cities. With plants operated by Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mercedes-Benz clustered in the area, it is known along with Chennai as "India's Detroit."
Hyundai Motor (005380) held a completion ceremony for the Pune plant on the 14th. The company acquired the former General Motors plant, which had sat idle for three years since 2020, and spent two years on an extensive overhaul. "Everything was replaced except the columns," a Hyundai Motor official said. Excluding the acquisition price, about 1 trillion won ($700 million) went into the renovation alone. Beyond the vehicle assembly plant, the site includes an engine plant, a test track and employee training facilities. Hyundai Motor plans to transform the Pune plant into a future-oriented smart factory and operate India as an innovation production base.
The plant visited that day was taking shape as a smart factory built on robotic automation and artificial intelligence.
In the press shop, which houses a 5,400-ton press line, an AI panel crack detection system combining infrared sensor-based detection with camera vision inspection automatically identified micro-cracks and surface defects. The press line, with annual capacity of 230,000 units, currently produces the body panels that form the exterior and frame of the All-New Venue.
In the body shop, 204 industrial robots welded body components to complete each vehicle's frame and exterior. The number of robots has grown to 204 from six during the GM era. Through fully automated welding, the company says it has cut the production workforce by about 50% compared with the plant before the acquisition.
Completed bodies undergo detailed quality checks with 3D equipment. Three vehicles are inspected each week with a 3D optical scanner, and one vehicle a day is measured with a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) that takes point-contact readings at 2,000 locations, verifying gaps on doors and hoods down to the micrometer, or one-thousandth of a millimeter. In the paint shop, a tunnel-structured smart inspection lighting system detects fine defects on the body surface after coating.
The trim shop, the final stage where various automotive parts are assembled into finished vehicles, marked the peak of the smart factory. The system there is designed for mixed-model production of compact sport utility vehicles, hybrids and other variants. "Through a smart tag system, real-time communication between vehicle information and production equipment prevents assembly defects in advance, and an augmented reality assembly training system has strengthened workers' assembly skills," a Hyundai Motor official said.
Production speed has risen to 26 vehicles an hour from 21 under GM, and the plant can build up to 40 an hour if orders increase. Hyundai Motor said it has already secured the number of process stations needed to handle that volume.
The Pune plant currently employs about 4,700 people, a figure that rises to about 12,400 including workers at group affiliates and suppliers. More than 90% of the total workforce is hired in Maharashtra state, and the plant has achieved a parts localization rate of more than 85% through its network of local suppliers, drawing strong support from residents.
In August, the plant won a top prize in the brands and communication category of the 2026 Red Dot Design Award, a global design competition. Judges praised the way office space, cafeterias and other support facilities were designed to respect employees' lives and daily routines. It is the first time an automobile production plant has won a Red Dot Design Award for its employee office space and support facilities.
With annual capacity of 170,000 units, the Pune plant currently produces the second-generation Venue, a compact SUV popular in the local market. Beyond targeting India's domestic market, it exports the Venue to about 30 countries across Latin America, the Middle East and Africa through the port of Mumbai. Hyundai Motor plans to add a new model in 2028 to raise annual capacity to 250,000 units, and to expand it to 320,000 units by 2030.
