Hyundai to go ahead with eco cars

Hyundai Motor Co. said it will go ahead with plans to develop environment-friendly cars despite the segment’s low profitability and an industry downturn. A weaker won has helped Hyundai and other South Korean automakers by enhancing price competitiveness and boosting profits from overseas markets media reports said. “It is difficult to get profits from those kinds of cars. But we have to go that way eventually so will go ahead with our eco-friendly model plans,” Yang Woong-chul, president of the Hyundai’s auto research and development division said. The group usually allocates 5% of sales for R&D and spends 20 to 30% of that budget on environment-friendly models such as hybrid cars, he added. Hyundai plans to start mass production of gasoline hybrid cars next year and to begin mass production of plug-in hybrids from late 2012. Earlier this year, Hyundai unveiled the Elantra LPI, a hybrid version of one of its compact cars, which will be powered by liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and lithium polymer batteries. (April 2, 2009)