Hyundai Abandons India For Europe

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

In the WTF dept., “Hyundai Motor India is planning to shift production of one of its premium models to Europe after a strike over unionization at its south India plant that led to the mass arrest of 750 protesters,” reports Financial Times.

The move reflects growing skepticism of international automakers about the political climate in what used to be one of the world’s most promising growth markets.

Hyundai plans to move production of its i20 compact saloon to a so-far-undisclosed location in Europe. It will be closer to its target market, as 80,000 of the 120,000 i20s to be produced were slated for export, mostly to Europe.

Mahindra & Mahindra reports that workers at one of its plants are on strike also.

Tata Motors, the country’s largest automaker, was forced last year to relocate a plant for the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, after protests by farmers.

India has a bad reputation for an unpredictable business environment. According to the FT, prolonged problems “in labor relations would be worrying for India’s hopes of becoming an industrial power.”

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Ronnie Schreiber Ronnie Schreiber on May 09, 2009
    Israel is a functioning first world country. Thanks to billions of American Tax dollar our government is covertly and overtly channeling to that country. Actually, Israel was a pretty well functioning country before US aid started increasing after the 1973 war. Most of that aid, btw, comes back to the US in the form of military purchases. Some of that aid goes towards the development of defense systems used by the US, including the latest tank defense system, Trophy.
  • Greg Locock Greg Locock on May 09, 2009

    So the British Empire's legacy is that workers will stand up for themselves if they think they are being abused by management? Presumably because they can more or less trust the police and legal system to protect their rights? I'm pretty cool with that. I'm a bit surprised that some American people aren't.

    • 2ronnies1cup 2ronnies1cup on Aug 07, 2011

      Given the same message repeated over and over again, turkeys can be persuaded to vote for Thanksgiving.

  • Amit Das Amit Das on May 09, 2009

    Ronnie Schreiber: >>India has the advantage of being a former British colony. The Brits did colonialism properly. And when you say proper, does that mean only 10m famine deaths in India alone. Famines before British rule had protocols between regions. Grain and other essentials were redistributed rather efficiently. I enjoy how the British even want to take credit for "uniting" India or "putting it on the map". Ahh, I guess all those disparate states in Europe would rather be consolidated into one federal republic. After all Sweden and Greece have as much in common as Rajasthan and Tripura. "Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World" by Mark Davis: "Davis dives into the data and journalism of the period with a vengeance, showing that the seemingly unprecedented droughts across northern Africa, India and China in the 1870s and 1890s are consistent with what we now know to be El Ni¤o's effects, and that it was political and market forces (which are never impersonal, Davis insists), and not a lack of potential stores and transportation, that kept grain from the more than 50 million people who starved to death. Chapters brilliantly reconstruct the political, economic, ecological and racial climate of the time, as well as the horrific deaths by hunger and thirst that besieged the peasantries of the afflicted c0untries."

  • Niky Niky on May 09, 2009
    psarhjinian : May 8th, 2009 at 2:36 pm But yes, they weren’t as outright horrific as the Dutch and Spanish, but we’re talking about degrees of awfulness from “bad” to “hellish”. I doubt anyone could be as bad as the Spanish. Interesting study came up last year... seems that island nations colonized by western powers show a trend in economic and social development... with the British at the top and the Spanish and Portugese at the bottom of the heap... Martin Schwoerer : May 8th, 2009 at 4:37 pm I don’t understand how the i20 could be called a premium car. It is in India. It's a million times better than a Maruti... and much more expensive... I'm actually impressed by the workmanship in Indian-made (versus Chinese) cars... Marutis are cheap tin-cans, but at least some care and precision is put into their assembly. And the indian-made Hyundai i10 is light-years ahead of its competition in terms of fit and finish.
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