South Korean automotive giant Hyundai Motor Group will soon have its global production capacity at near 9 million cars per year with the construction of its latest production facility in China expected to be completed before the year's end, company officials said Thursday.

The automaker's overall capacity currently stands at 8.48 million units after a new plant in Mexico, which began producing cars earlier in the year, added 400,000 cars to Kia Motors Corp., the smaller of the two carmakers under the group's wings.

Hyundai Motor Co., the larger affiliate of Kia Motors and top automaker in South Korea, is set to open its fourth production facility in Changzhou, China, before the end of 2016, followed by another facility in Chongquing next year.

The two new production facilities in China will add an additional 500,000 cars to the brand, bringing the group's total output capacity to 8.98 million, the officials said.

The company also has plans to expand the capacity of the new plant in Changzhou by an additional 100,000 by 2018, bringing the group's overall capacity to over 9 million.

In 2015, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors sold a combined total of 8.02 million cars globally, making their parent company the world's fifth automotive group by sales.

"While continuing to expand its global production network, the group will work to ensure its growth in terms of both quantity and quality by actively reacting to changes in the global market," a company official said.

To this end, the group plans to introduce a total of 28 environmentally friendly vehicles by 2020 to become the world's second-largest supplier of green cars, the official noted.

The company is also moving to develop self-driving cars to complete its lineup, he added. (Yonhap)