Hyundai Motor’s Turkey plant rolls out 1 millionth vehicle

Hyundai Motor said on Tuesday its Turkey plant, Hyundai Assan Otomotiv Sanayi, has produced a cumulative total of 1 million vehicles as of Monday. The 1 millionth vehicle produced on Monday was the "i10" minicar, which was to be exported to Germany.

The plant, which was established in 1997 in Izmit, a port city near Istanbul, is producing the "i10" and the "i20," the Korean automaker’s strategic vehicles for Europe. In the early days, the plant would produce the "Accent" subcompact car, and the “Starex” minivan, whose sales volumes are relatively small, and sold them in the Turkey market, or exported to Middle East countries nearby. But the company transformed the plant into an export base for the European market, starting with the production of the "i20" in 2010. Hyundai Motor increased the annual production at its Turkey plant from 60,000 units to 100,000 in 2007, before investing 690 million U.S. dollars last year to establish a system to roll out 200,000 vehicles every year.

A Hyundai Motor source said, “The plant’s operation rate will increase further when it starts producing the new "i20" subcompact at the year’s end.”