A small car manufacturing company from Seoul, South Korea decided to build a plant just outside Chennai 28 years ago. Today, that company is the second largest automobile manufacturing company in the country. We are talking about Hyundai Motors' Indian arm, Hyundai Motors India. India is now considered the first home for the South Korean company. Its plant is in the Irungattukottai area near Chennai.

"When I joined the company in 2001, we used to make around 36,000 cars per year, while today we make 765,000 cars," KM Kamalnath Babu, AVP (Procurement), Hyundai Motor India, told CNBC-TV18.

As we visited the company's plant on the eve of its biggest listing in India, Kamal shared some of his fond memories from his 23-year career at Hyundai. What the AVP said "My fondest memory is the launch of the Hyundai Sonata in 2001. It was the first launch I saw and the black car showcase made us sit up and realise that cars can be this good!" Hyundai's Chennai plant was inaugurated in 1998 by then Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, two years after which the CM himself laid the foundation stone for the plant that later became the auto giant's India base. The Irungattukottai plant has seen it all, from iconic launches like the Santro in 1998 to rolling out its first compact sedan Hyundai Accent in 2014 and ushering in the SUV era with the Hyundai Creta. "The Creta launch was memorable and very close to me," said Gauri Srikanth, regional sales head for Tamil Nadu at Hyundai Motor India and a 24-year veteran of the company. "It was like a festival. All our showrooms were packed with customers and weekdays seemed like weekends. Customers would wait in long queues just to experience the car," he added. Major milestone achieved in 2021 After achieving several milestones in terms of production, Hyundai achieved a major milestone in 2021. It launched its 10 millionth car this year. By the time the Alcazar rolled off the line, the auto major had consolidated its position as India's second-largest car manufacturing company. The possibilities were endless for Hyundai in India. However, 2021 was special for more than one reason. "We launched the all-new i20 during the Covid pandemic. We knew that operations were shut down across the world at that time, including our counterparts. We had the option of postponing our model launches, but we love challenges and we prefer to overcome them," said Karthikeyan Kalamani, general manager (manufacturing engineering). Unconditional love for Chennai Hyundai's love for Chennai extends beyond the four walls of its plant. Earlier this year, the Creta became the car of choice for the Greater Chennai City Police, further strengthening the bond between the automaker and the city. Incidentally, Chennai is also home to Hyundai's hydrogen-fuel R&D ecosystem, where it has invested Rs 180 crore in partnership with IIT-Madras for the first-of-its-kind Hydrogen Valley innovation hub.

Today, Hyundai's production lines are completely revamped. The company recently released a report on the modernisation of its old, trusted facility, with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore over the next few years as it expands the production site from 5.4 lakh sq m to 7.2 lakh sq m, increasing its current workforce to over 18,000.

This expansion comes in the wake of Hyundai completely revamping its old plant in Tamil Nadu as it prepares for the next wave of EV launches. The coming years are perhaps even more exciting than the past.