Hyundai is planning to buy General Motors‘ factory in India’s western state of Maharashtra, allowing the South Korean automaker to dramatically enhance its local production rates.
GM has been looking for a buyer for its Talegaon facility since the company ceased selling cars in India in 2017 owing to declining sales.
The South Korean company stated that it plans to upgrade the current infrastructure at the Talegaon facility and begin manufacture in 2025. The plant currently has a production capacity of 130,000 units per year.
According to Reuters, the new factory will join the Sriperumbudur plant that Hyundai now operates outside of Chennai city, allowing it to increase its overall Indian production capacity to 1 million units per year, up from 820,000 units in the first half of this year.
Hyundai is India’s second-largest automaker in terms of sales. Last year, the carmaker sold 552,511 automobiles in the country, representing 14.5% of the local market.
Hyundai wasn’t the only automaker interested in the facility; in 2019, GM agreed to sell it to China’s Great Wall Motor, but the deal fell through when the parties failed to gain regulatory permits in the face of New Delhi’s scrutiny of Chinese investments.