Chairman Chung Mong-koo of Hyundai Motor Group meets with Indian PM Narendra Modi during his visit to Korea on May 19 to discusss the ways to boost Hyundai Group's operation in India including the third auto plant.

Chairman Chung Mong-koo of Hyundai Motor said the auto maker will seriously consider building its third auto plant in India following his talks on May 19 with the visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, saying that the motor company's Chennai car plant in India has been a shiny symbol for the economic cooperation between Korea and India and he would like to thank the Indian government for its help to the Chennai auto plant for its continuous growth. The chairman said the two auto plants in Chennai are expected to turnout 640,000 cars this year, up 4 percent form the previous year and 470,000 cars are destined to be sold in India while 170,000 of them are expected to be shipped to 110 other countries. Chung also said the Hyundai Group is ready to expand its cooperation wit India into other key areas including construction of infrastructure such as railroad cars to expand its contribution to the developments of both India and Korea. PM Modi said he was very glad to meet with Chairman Chung of Hyundai Group which has been playing such an important role in India's auto industry. He would like to see Hyundai Motor to grow to be the third largest auto maker in the world based on the cooperative relationship with India and he hopes that the India's auto industry will continue to maintain cooperative relationship with Hyundai Motor and grow further as the Indian government is ready to give its support.

Hyundai Motorsport is optimistic it can achieve another positive result as the 2015 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) resumes at next week’s Rally Argentina — round four of this year’s 13-event series — following a six-week break.

Returning refreshed and motivated following a top-five result in Mexico last month, the team has made further improvements to its Hyundai i20 WRC rally cars in an attempt to continue the positive momentum in its second year of WRC competition.

Enthusiastic Argentine fans line up on the roadside to cheer for their WRC idols — adding a special atmosphere to the entire event.

Hyundai Motorsport will make the most of the experience it accumulated last year in its first-ever Rally Argentina event, as it aims to cement second place in the Manufacturers’ standings. The team’s Hyundai i20 WRC cars will once again be in the expert hands of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 WRC #7) and Dani Sordo (Hyundai i20 WRC #8) — representing the Hyundai Shell World Rally Team — and Hayden Paddon (Hyundai i20 WRC #20) running for the Hyundai Mobis World Rally Team.

Hyundai Motorsport started preparations for Rally Argentina last month when the team travelled to Spain for a test with all three drivers behind the wheel of the Hyundai i20 WRC. Testing is prohibited outside Europe, but the Spanish roads offered similar characteristics to those expected in Argentina next week, allowing the team to prepare well for this demanding event.

Members of Hyundai Motorsport Team are euphoric at a rally of the 2015 FIA World Rally Championhip in Mexico in April. They drove the i20 sedan provided by Hyundai Motor at the rally.(Photos:Hyundai Motor)

Hyundai Motor Company Announces Q1 Results

Hyundai Motor Company, South Korea’s largest automaker, announced first-quarter business results for 2015. Sales volume, revenue and operating profit declined from the same quarter last year, due to unfavorable external factors such as strong won against euro and currencies of developing countries.

Sales revenue declined to 20.94 trillion won (Auto 16.53 trillion won; Finance and others 4.41 trillion won) from the same quarter last year, and operating profit and net profit also fell to 1.59 trillion won and 1.98 trillion won (including non-controlling interest), despite continued efforts of improving model mix and cost savings.

For the first three months of the year, the company sold a total of 1,182,834 units worldwide, a 3.6 percent drop compared to the same period last year, and its sales revenue also decreased 3.3 percent. Sales in Korea fell 3.7 percent to 154,802 units, while oversea sales also decreased 3.6 percent to 1,028,032 units from the same quarter last year.