Hyundai Motor India is planning to develop a new car from scratch in India. Following Maruti Suzuki’s decision to allow the local R&D team to develop new cars, Hyundai is also planning to do the same independent of expertise from South Korea.
Hyundai Motor India Engineering (HMIE) in Hyderabad could see an increase from the 500 engineers so that the customisation setup is changed to a full-fledged development centre. Cars such as the Grand i10, Xcent and the new Elite i20 have a major inputs from HMIE.
Hyundai officials suggest there always was an option to allow the R&D team to create a product on their own. Also, local development will result in high levels of localisation which in return would result in lower costs. It is now yet confirmed if the upcoming compact-SUV and MPV will have major inputs from HMIE. The R&D centre currently helps in developing vehicles by assisting in styling, design engineering and vehicle test and evaluation.
Source – Business Standard