Hyundai may set up diesel engine plant

Hyundai Motor will consider building diesel engines in India if demand of a single model touches 50,000 units, managing director and CEO Heung Soo Lheem said. The current demand for the company's diesel cars in a single version is around 30,000 units.

Lheem said on Thursday at the launch of Verna CRDi SX in Hyderabad, an overwhelmingly diesel-driven market, that 75 per cent of Vernas sold in the country were diesel variants, while the same was 95 per cent in Andhra market. The Verna sales have increased by 50 per cent to 3,000 cars a month during the last financial, according to him.

The company is planning to launch another car, code-named PA, in the compact car segment, towards the end of the current year but has no plans to introduce any diesel variants in this segment. "Yet, if there is a demand, count on us, there would be supply too," he added. Attributing supply side constraints to the dip in the fourth quarter sales in the country, he said the capacity expansion currently under way at the Chennai plant to increase the production capacity to 6 lakh cars.