Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, second from right, speaks during a meeting with company employees at its regional headquarters in Gurgaon, India, Tuesday. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun visited India to boost the carmaker's strategic inroads into the country's emerging and highly lucrative electric vehicle (EV) market, the company said Thursday.

Chung's visit to India reflects growing economic influences of the region. Last year, India solidified its footing as the world's third-largest car market after the United States and China. More than five million new vehicles were sold in the country in 2023 alone.

The Indian government is also moving to support overseas EV manufacturers under a plan of expanding its EV sales portion to 30 percent out of total vehicle sales by 2030. The country pledges to drastically cut tariffs on imported EVs, if their manufacturers make investment worth at least $500 million (688 billion won) in India and start producing EVs there within the next three years.

Hyundai Motor Group also hopes to achieve the benefit by setting up a mid-to long-term growth strategy there. Toward the end, Hyundai Motor acquired a manufacturing facility in Pune, Maharashtra, last year. The facility is now under renovation with the group's smart manufacturing system. It is forecast to achieve an annual manufacturing capacity of more than 200,000 vehicles upon its completion scheduled for the latter half of 2025.

Hyundai Motor also operates a factory in Chennai whose capacity reaches more than 820,000 annually.

Kia's production capacity there will also widen to over 430,000 vehicles within the first half of 2024. This will enable the group's two automakers to soon manufacture more than 1.5 million vehicles annually when the operation of their factories goes into full swing.

Both automakers are also scheduled to launch localized EVs there. According to the group, Hyundai Motor will launch its first locally-manufactured EV sometime in the latter half of this year. The Chennai factory will serve as a hub for the firm's EV production. The automaker plans to launch a total of five EV models by 2030. It also pledged to expand the number of its EV charging stations to 485 by the year.

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, center, poses for a photo with local staff at its regional headquarters in Gurgaon, India, Tuesday. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group

Kia is also set to start production of its small EV localized for the market in 2025.

Chung met with executives and employees from the group's regional headquarters there. More than 3,000 officials took part in the meeting with Chung online and offline.

He stressed the strategic importance of the country during the hour-long meeting.

"India has made the biggest contribution to the sustainable growth of Hyundai Motor Group, helping us to achieve solid earnings even during the pandemic era," Chung said. "Hyundai Motor Group is proud that we maintain the position as the second-largest automaker in terms of the market share there by building our premium identity and strengthening brand power."