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Hyundai Motor "isn't afraid" of Mercedes Benz engines any more, chairman says
TOKYO, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo recently hailed his company for developing three new diesel engines with Hyundai's own technology, saying the South Korean automaker is no longer worried about competing with Mercedes Benz in the commercial vehicle sector.
"Now, we aren't afraid of Benz," Lee Hyun-soon, head of Hyundai's research and development division, quoted Chung as saying in a meeting with executives after the carmaker developed new 4-liter, 6-liter and 10-liter diesel engines for buses and trucks in the middle of this month.
Lee made the statement on the sidelines of an auto show in Tokyo.
In 2004, Chung ordered Hyundai workers to simultaneously develop the three new engines "a month before a commercial-vehicle joint venture with DaimlerChrysler broke up," Lee said.
Mercedes-Benz is Daimler's top brand in terms of luxury cars and commercial vehicles.
At that time, the company then called DamilerChrysler sold its 10.5 percent stake in Hyundai Motor and scrapped a plan to jointly build trucks and buses in South Korea. Daimler recently announced the sale of its loss-making U.S. arm Chrysler.
"The development of commercial-vehicle engines was a difficult task at the time, but we didn't have any choice but to do it for survival," Lee said.
On Oct. 17, after spending 39 months and 600 billion won (US$659 million), Hyundai unveiled the three new diesel engines at its truck and bus plant in Jeonju, 243 kilometers south of Seoul.
In a statement, Hyundai said it aims to sell 80,000 commercial vehicles a year around the world by 2010 and 100,000 units by 2012.
(END)
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