Beijing Hyundai expects to build fourth plant around 2015, exec says

Shanghai December 14 (Gasgoo.com) Two weeks after the South Korean-Chinese joint venture Beijing Hyundai broke ground on its third auto manufacturing plant in Beijing, the company is now mulling over building the fourth plant around 2015, its executive vice general manager Li Feng said in a recent interview with NBD.com.cn.

Beijing Hyundai will be mainly focused on enhancing its brand influence next year, expecting to become the largest passenger vehicle manufacturer in China, Li Feng said. 

Construction on the fourth plant is likely to start in 2004 or 2005, Li Feng said, adding that the annual production capacity of the new plant is expected to reach about 1.2 million vehicles by 2015.

Asked the company's plans on high-end vehicles, he said sales of the high-end SUVs accounted for 16% of the total vehicle sales last year, that is 26% this year and likely to increase to 33% next year, indicating that the company has shifted target to the SUV and high-end vehicle markets from the family car market. The company hopes to raise that proportion to 40% in the short term, he added. 

Beijing Hyundai's third plant in Shunyi, eastern Beijing, with a designed capacity of 400,000 passenger cars per year, would increase Hyundai's annual production capacity in China to one million units, the company said in a statement earlier.

The company's other two plants, also in Shunyi, had a total annual capacity of 600,000 vehicles, but sales this year were expected to exceed 700,000 units, according to the joint venture's deputy general manager Wang Dazong.