PUNE, India — Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung said the group will broaden its investment in India beyond autos into infrastructure and energy. He spoke to Korean reporters on the 14th at Hyundai Motor's (005380.KS) new plant in Pune, Maharashtra state.
"The Indian market is growing fast and is also very important globally," Chung said. "The completion of the new Pune plant this year, our 30th year in India, will be a quite significant milestone." He added: "Going forward, we want to keep investing not only in autos but also in other infrastructure and energy areas, and become a company that develops together with India."
Chung held a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the prime minister's residence in New Delhi the previous day, their eighth meeting. Describing the talks, Chung said: "I told him we would provide better-quality and safer cars." He added: "With electric vehicles also increasing in India, I said we would work with local companies in EVs and batteries to build better cars." He also said: "We intend to provide India with various modes of transport, not just cars but buses and subways, and to build infrastructure. I said we would keep discussing areas such as future energy, robotics and AI and develop them one by one."
At the meeting, Chung also outlined a medium- to long-term plan to invest about $15.5 billion (about 20.8 trillion won) in India over the seven years from this year through 2032. The money will go toward building new plants, strengthening research and development capabilities, improving the competitiveness of the local supply chain and developing future technologies.
Chung pointed to charging infrastructure as the main hurdle to wider EV adoption in India. "India still lacks EV charging infrastructure, so together with the government we will need to bring in the charging systems we operate overseas and expand them," he said. "If there are areas where we need to join forces with Indian automakers or global carmakers, we will do so."
On plans to use AI at the Pune plant, Chung said: "AI is already widely used in office work and in factory quality control." He added that it "will be used for quality control in the same way at Pune and other new plants." On growing alongside suppliers, he said: "Many of our domestic suppliers are now in India." He added: "Because what the Indian side is asking for is a higher localization rate, we will pool our ideas to raise that rate and find ways for our suppliers to succeed along with us."
Chung, who recently marked his sixth anniversary as group chairman, said: "Six years went by so fast that I hardly know how they passed. We were able to make at least some progress because all of our executives and employees worked together." He added: "There were ups and downs, but the most important thing is human resources. My mission is to pour every effort into developing our people further and to keep us ahead in technology and quality."