Hyundai to temporarily halt local plant for EV production

Hyundai Motor Co. said Friday it will suspend one of its seven domestic plants for four weeks to prepare for the production of an electric vehicle.

Hyundai plans to halt the Asan plant from Tuesday until Aug. 6 to upgrade the facilities before it begins production of the IONIQ 6 midsize sedan later this year, a company spokesman said over the phone.

The 300,000-unit-a-year Asan plant produces the Sonata sedan and the Santa Fe SUV.

In February, the maker of the Sonata sedan and the Palisade SUV unveiled the IONIQ5 all-electric model embedded with its own EV-only electric-global modular platform (E-GMP) in lines with rival carmakers' electrification push.

Hyundai plans to introduce the IONIQ 6 next year and the IONIQ 7 large SUV in 2024. It will begin using alphanumeric names like its bigger rivals, such as BMW, whose models are named Series No. 1-8.

It has seven domestic plants -- five in Ulsan, one in Asan and one in Jeonju -- and 10 overseas plants -- four in China and one each in the United States, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Russia, India and Brazil. Their combined capacity reaches 5.5 million vehicles. (Yonhap)