Sabah – Hyundai’s plant in Türkiye’s Kocaeli province will begin manufacturing the company’s next generation i10 model by the end of the next year, according to Woong Chul Yang, head of Hyundai R&D, who presented the prototype of the revamped supermini to the jury members of the Car of the Year international award.
In its late stages of development at the company’s R&D center in South Korea, the new i10 will bring in TRY 1.1 billion (Approx. USD 620 million) of new investments in the form of production line and spare parts upgrades to the Hyundai Assan plant in Kocaeli’s Izmit district in northwestern Türkiye. Hyundai Assan, established as a joint venture with Turkish Kibar Group, currently manufactures another compact car, i20 Troy, mainly for export markets at a rate of 120,000 vehicles per year.
The facility upgrades for the production of i10 will increase the Izmit plant’s capacity to 200,000 vehicles per year while creating jobs for 2,400 people, spare industry included. The plant, which stands out from Hyundai plants around the world for its outstanding production quality, currently exports the i20 Troy to more than 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Hyundai, which is one of the several global automakers such as Ford, Toyota, Honda and Renault that have production operations in Türkiye, announced a production agreement with Turkish company Karsan last month. The deal, involving a joint investment of USD 260 million by Hyundai and Karsan, calls for the production of Hyundai branded light commercial vehicle models of various configurations in Türkiye.