Hyundai to spend $845 million fixing GM’s mothballed India plant

A pedestrian wheels a bicycle past the largely idled plant owned by General Motors Co. in Talegaon, Maharashtra (Image: Bloomberg)

Hyundai Motor Co. plans to spend 70 billion rupees ($845 million) to get its second plant in India ready for operations after buying the mothballed factory from General Motors Co.

The carmaker will sign the investment agreement with the western state of Maharashtra at the annual World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland this week, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Saturday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Hyundai last year bought the General Motors factory in Talegaon, which has stood idle for years after the US company struggled to sell it off following its exit from the country. The South Korean manufacturer will “make phased investments to upgrade the existing infrastructure and manufacturing equipment at the Talegaon plant,” according to a representative for Hyundai.

Hyundai has grown to become India’s second-biggest carmaker, capitalizing on the rising demand for sport utility vehicles suited for the country’s potholed roads. The company is also looking to cater to India’s growing middle-class, with many aspiring to own bigger cars.

The automaker is also planning to invest 200 billion rupees over the next eight years in new electric models, a battery pack assembly unit and charging stations on major highways in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Hyundai currently has a plant there where it can produce 825,000 cars annually. The firm’s India sales rose 10% to 42,750 last month, compared to a year earlier, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.