 "Hyundai")
By Praveen Paramasivam
CHENNAI (Reuters) -South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co said on Thursday it will invest 200 billion rupees ($2.45 billion) in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over the next 10 years, to beef up electric vehicle production in the world's most populous country.
Tamil Nadu is a hub for automobile manufacturing with the likes of Ashok Leyland, TVS Motor, Hyundai and Renault-Nissan making thousands of two- and four-wheelers every year.
Hyundai, through its Indian subsidiary Hyundai Motor India, will also set up a battery pack assembly unit with an annual capacity of 178,000 units and install 100 EV charging stations across the state in the next five years, it said in a statement.
The carmaker's move comes a few weeks after the federal government said it would raise taxes on imported cars and motorbikes, including electric vehicles (EVs), as it seeks to boost local manufacturing.
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India's EV industry has grown rapidly, with domestic carmakers Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra as well as global rivals BYD and SAIC's MG Motor lining up launches.
However, the market is still small, accounting for roughly 1% of the total car sales in the country in 2022. The federal government aims to push that number to 30% by 2030 as it looks to reduce pollution and fuel imports.
As of April, Hyundai had a nearly 15% market share in India's passenger vehicle space, only behind Maruti Suzuki.
Hyundai rivals Nissan Motor and Renault SA in February said they would invest $600 million to fund the development of two electric models and four sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) for sale in India and abroad.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
