Hyundai Motor Unveils 1st Hybrid Car

Seoul, October 3, 2004; Bae Keun-min writing for The Korea Times reported that Hyundai Motor has stepped on the gas to advance the mass production era of environmentally friendly passenger cars, planning to begin commercial marketing across the nation at the end of 2006.

Hyundai Motor on Friday unveiled a hybrid version of its compact Click at the Grand Hyatt Seoul with 400 people on hand, including such dignitaries as Premier Lee Hai-chan, Commerce-Industry-Energy Minister Lee Hee-beom and General Electric Company chairman Jeffrey Immelt.

At the venue, Hyundai handed over 50 units of the hybrid vehicles, which run on an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, to the Ministry of Environment.

Under the project name MC, it will begin to roll out a hybrid version of new vehicles, the first to be commercially available for general customers, at the end of next year, the company said. Hyundai said it will invest 300 billion won by 2010 to establish manufacturing facilities with an annual capacity of 300,000 units by 2010.

The 50 Click vehicles, which Hyundai spent 10.6 billion won to manufacture, are the first passenger vehicles to actually run on the road here, although Hyundai has introduced the concept of hybrid cars several times for exhibitions since 1995.

``Hyundai Motor will make full efforts to develop next-generation environmentally friendly cars for the preservation of the earth, which is one of the next government-designated growth engines,ĄŻĄŻ Hyundai Automotive Group chairman Chung Mong-koo said.

Chung and Immelt from GE had a one-on-one meeting after the ceremony to discuss cooperative measures in auto financing programs as well as other industrial sectors.