South Korean manufacturer Hyundai plans to start producing electric cars in the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech (HMMC) plant in Nosovice in 2020, E15.cz reported on July 23.

Hyundai apparently wants to make Nosovice its overseas base for ecological cars. The full-electric Kona will be the first electric car to be manufactured by Hyundai outside Korea. A hybrid version of the Hyundai Tuscon has already been manufactured in the Czech Republic. Even though the HMMC refused to comment on the story, its spokesman Petr Vanek said in May that the company was preparing for a major model offensive next year. 

Hyundai Motor may produce as many as 46,000 units of the Kona Electric at its Czech plant next year, a source told BusinessKorea.co.kr. This is not far off the 48,000 units to be produced at its Ulsan plant this year.

To achieve this, Hyundai Motor plans to invest KRW105.7bn (€80.3mn) in its Czech plant this year. It has already spent KRW2.8bn in 1Q19 on expanding and improving the plant, according to  BusinessKorea.co.kr. However, the lion’s share of the investment is expected to be made in the  second half of the year to prepare to start volume production of eco-friendly cars in 2020. 

The HMMC plant in Nosovice earned CZK7.22bn in profits in 2018, up by CZK531mn compared to the previous year. Last year’s profits were up by 7.9% y/y despite a drop in revenues of 5.4% to CZK129.26bn. In 2018, HMMC manufactured 340,300 cars, which was 10,300 more than planned. Originally the company aimed to build 330,000 cars, while the current plan for this year is 318,000.

Sales of new cars in the Czech Republic fell by 12% in 1Q19. Sales declined to 59,616 cars y/y in 1Q19, with the biggest interest in SUVs, which accounted for almost 31%. Hyundai ended up fourth with 3,968 sold cars after Skoda Auto (20,586), Volkswagen (5,715) and Dacia (4,018). The Hyundai i30 was the best-selling non-Skoda model with 1,520 cars sold after Skoda’s Octavia, Fabia, Rapid and Karoq.