September 26 (SeeNews) - South Korea's Hyundai Motor said on Thursday it has completed a $634 million (470 million euro) project to expand the capacity of its plant in Turkey and has commenced production of the first New Generation i10 cars for the European market.
The annual output capacity at the Hyundai Assan Otomotiv Sanayi plant, located in the city of Izmit, was doubled to 200,000 vehicles in 16 months, the South Korean car maker said in a statement.
The company will invest a further $43 million in the plant by the end of the year.
The expansion of the plant will create more than 2,700 jobs.
The plant will be the sole production base for the new generation i10, Hyundai Motor's vice chairman Euisun Chung said Thursday during a ceremony marking the start of production of the model.
The plant, launched in 1997, has become Hyundai Motor's small car production base for Europe with the addition of i10 to the existing production of i20, the company added.
($ = 0.741 euro)