The head of South Korea's No. 2 automaker Kia Motors Corp. said Wednesday that his company will eventually have to produce vehicles in India, one of the world's fastest growing markets, but that it was in no hurry to do so.
Speaking to reporters at a Seoul hotel, Kia Motors CEO Park Han-woo acknowledged the company was looking at possible sites for a production facility in India.
"Because we are not shipping a single car to India, we will eventually have to go," Park said. He, however, said building a plant in India will not be easy.
"There currently is no right piece of land (for a plant) in India or the right person to do it," he said.
Park's remarks followed an earlier report that the South Korean carmaker was planning to build a facility for production from 2019.
The company chief said the timeline might be a hope but that nothing has been decided.
"There is no reason for us to rush. The more we want, the more desperate we get and those who are desperate always end up losing, so we try not to rush," he said.
Meanwhile, the head of Kia Motors' larger affiliate Hyundai Motor Co. said the company expects to see a successful launch of the G80, the latest trim of its luxury passenger sedan the Genesis.
"We plan to secure enough supplies and begin delivering them to U.S. dealers before the end of August," Chung Jin-haeng said.
The Hyundai Motor CEO also hinted at a joint project with leading American IT firms, such as Google, to develop self-driving vehicles, noting they were already communicating with each other.
"The two sides both need each other as we need to see how they do while they may not know too well about cars," he said.
Both Park and Chung were attending a special meeting with commerce minister Joo Hyung-hwan that also involved top executive officials from other local automakers, including GM Korea, the South Korean unit of U.S. automaker General Motor Co. (Yonhap)
MOST POPULAR