Hyundai is getting increasingly aggressive these days. If Genesis sedan assault wasnt enough, Hyundai is now seriously looking at another Japanese stronghold, the Hybrids. The company is planning to go full steam in developing its own hybrid technology. The company will start off with the hybrid variants of Accent, Sonata and Avante sedan while the research and development center in India will be given the go ahead to develop the technology for small cars. Currently, Hyundai provides Verna (Accent) hybrid models to government agencies as pilot projects. The plan is to expand the line-up to mid-sized sedans and beyond for mass production, starting from 2009.

“We have been slow in the field so far but have aggressive plans given the fact that high oil prices have made hybrids almost a necessity now. From next year, we will sell hybrid cars in Korea and by 2010 we will be selling them all over the world,” said Seok San Jang, a senior vice president for Hyundai’s international business operations. “India is our hub for small cars and hybrids for smaller cars will also eventually come from there.”

Hyundai is also kicking its development plans into full gear with the aim to mass produce fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) beginning 2012. Hyundai plans to expand a demo fleet of fuel cell electric vehicles to 500 units by 2010, including mid-to-large size SUV’s, then establish a small production system to begin mass production from 2012.

India is one of the most important market for the Korean car maker and not only that, its also the small car hub for the company. In this fiscal year the company has plans to produce 520,000 car of which 318,000 will be sold in the domestic market while rest of them will be for exports. The company is also ramping up it production facility to 600,000 units annually.