Hyundai stops exporting cars from India to Europe

South Korean car manufacturer, Hyundai has started using its plants in Turkey and Czech Republic to build cars to cater to European countries. The company has stopped shipping cars built at its Indian facility in Chennai, Tamil Nadu to European markets. With this step, the company's exports will come down to 1.9 lakh units from last year's 2.53 lakh units - a drop of 25%.

Hyundai is India's largest car exporter and accounts for about 45% of the country's total car exports. The Chennai plant has the capacity to roll out 6.8 lakh cars annually and had a capacity utilisation of 98.5% last year.

Hyundai claims that the step to halt exports to Europe has been taken so that the plant can concentrate its efforts on production for the Indian market. The company has launched 4 new models in the country last year and needed to create capacity. Therefore, the production of the Euro-spec i20 hatchback was shifted to the Turkey plant. In future, all the Euro-spec i20 and i10 cars will be built at the company's manufacturing facilities in Turkey and Czech Republic. The recently launched Elite i20 will also be built at the Turkey plant.

Hyundai however, intends to keep India as its global export hub for small cars. The Chennai plant will continue to build cars for Latin America, Middle East, Asia and Australia.

Source: ET Auto