Hyundai Motor India Engineering (HMIE) Managing Director Changyeon Cho led a delegation that met Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy at the Bodhi Pavilion in Hyderabad on October 16, 2026. The talks focused on speeding up Hyundai’s research and development project in Telangana.
The Chief Minister pitched Telangana, especially Hyderabad and nearby areas, as a suitable next location for a full car manufacturing unit. He cited the state’s central location in India, its cosmopolitan and livable environment, and its existing mobility clusters. He also pointed to strong road, air and rail connectivity, along with plans for high-speed links to ports.
Revanth Reddy also spoke about the Peri-Urban Region (PURE) framework for manufacturing and the planned Bharat Future City. He invited the Hyundai team to the Invest Telangana Global Summit 2026.
The main agenda was fast-tracking the ₹8,528-crore Global Innovation R&D Centre and an associated mega test centre. The project is planned on about 678 acres at the NIMZ Zaheerabad. It is expected to create 4,276 jobs in phases and will include testing tracks, pilot lines and prototyping facilities, including for electric vehicles.
Hyundai indicated it is ready for groundbreaking in the coming months. The Chief Minister directed officials to expedite pending approvals. In September 2026, Hyundai received an allotment of 270 acres in the Zaheerabad Industrial Smart City, which is part of the wider NIMZ and Hyderabad-Nagpur corridor plans. The project grew from an initial testing facility idea announced during the Chief Minister’s South Korea visit into the full R&D centre, building on commitments made in 2024 and 2025.
HMIE has had an R&D presence in Hitec City, Hyderabad, for over 20 years. It supports advanced vehicle engineering and works with global centres such as Namyang in South Korea. Cho said strengthening Hyderabad as a global technology and advanced engineering hub fits Telangana’s “Rising 2047” vision.
The meeting came days after Hyundai Motor Group announced a $15.5 billion investment plan for India for 2026–2032, following a meeting between Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The plan covers manufacturing expansion, R&D of about $700 million, local sourcing and future mobility. Hyundai has also inaugurated an AI-enabled smart plant in Pune, with an initial capacity of 170,000 units a year, scaling toward 320,000 by 2030. Together with its Chennai plants and Kia’s Anantapur unit, group capacity in India stands above 1.4 million vehicles annually. The Zaheerabad proposal is a pitch and a project acceleration step, not a finalized new manufacturing plant announcement.
