BANGALORE (XFN-ASIA) - Hyundai Motor's Indian unit plans to more than double its overseas sales of cars by 2008 and cement its place as the country's biggest automobile exporter, the company said Monday.
The South Korean automaker, which exported 113,000 made-in-India Accent and Santro cars last year, expects to ship 300,000 units by the end of 2008, it said after sending the first consignment of its Getz model to Europe.
'Given Hyundai Motor Company's global strategy to make India an export hub for small cars, we are shipping the first consignment for export of the new Getz to Europe,' Hyundai Motor's Inda unit manager H.S. Lheem said in a statement. 'For the Indian operations, this is a major milestone.'
The company plans to ship 40,000 Getz cars overseas in the next year, boosting the number to 100,000 units by 2008.
Since it was introduced in 2002, the Getz has sold more than 500,000 in Europe, accounting for close to 70 pct of its total sales worldwide.
The company logged total sales of 299,513 vehicles in 2006, up 18.5 pct compared with 2005.
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