R&D in China
Hyundai Motor Company is building a large-scale R&D center, comparable to the Namyang Research Institute, in China at a total investment of 200 billion won. The completion of the construction, which is already underway in part, is scheduled for late this year.
The new research center is slated to house R&D facilities covering design, vehicle environment and performance control, test driving, and may more, with the only exception of internal combustion engine R&D. The automaker has recently set up Hyundai Motor China R&D Ltd. in order to build the center in Yantai, Shandong Province.
The Hyundai Motor Group is already running its overseas R&D centers in the United States, Europe, India, and Japan. However, the Yantai facility is its first integrated R&D complex located outside Korea. It seems that the exclusion of the engine and transmission R&D divisions is to forestall any tech leak.
The carmaker is likely to break the 10 million unit mark in cumulative sales volume in China late this year. The construction of the local R&D center is expected to contribute greatly to the cycle of R&D, production, and sales. China called consistently for the construction and Hyundai decided to build the facilities in step with its fourth plant in the country.
According to Chinese government regulations from 2004, any automaker that is to set up a manufacturing plant in China has to build an R&D center at a minimum investment of US$62 million. “The purpose of the new facility is better localization,” said the Hyundai Motor Group, continuing, “Still, we have yet to fix on the size and the other details of the facilities, because talks are still going on with China.”