Hyundai Motor Company, founded in 1967, has production facilities in South Korea, Turkey, the USA, China, India, and the Czech Republic. The brand is active in more than 200 countries and is the world’s fifth largest automotive company by the number of units sold.
Successes and accomplishments in recent years have made Hyundai Motor Company one of the fastest-growing brands in the automotive industry, driving its sales to higher levels.
Hyundai’s Turkish unit Hyundai Assan produces the Accent Era and i20 model passenger cars, which are marketed to the domestic market, and exported to more than 60 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Hyundai Assan currently employs around 1,700 people, and exported a total of 17,314 vehicles in 2009.
Hyundai first entered the Turkish market in 1990. Following the warm reception of the brand and the high sale figures attained, the foundations for Hyundai’s Izmit plant were laid in 1995, with the plant starting its manufacturing operations in July 1997. The plant, located on a one million m² plot in the Alikaya region of the northwestern Turkish province of Kocaeli, has an annual production capacity of 125,000 units. Of the total area, 700,000 m² has been allocated for the plant, while 108,000 m² is used for production.
With its sales figures exceeding 60,000 passenger cars during 2009, Hyundai has become the most popular car brand in Turkey.