On its debut East African assembly plant, the Hyundai Motor Company has set up a 10,000-a-year vehicle capacity assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The South Korean motor hopes to attract the East African market through the locally-assembled cars even as it is well aware that second-hand vehicles dominate sales.
Vehicles that will roll off the assembly line at the plant just outside of the capital include passenger hatchback cars and trucks.
Hyundai Chief Executive Won Hee Lee said the Korean firm was drawn by Ethiopia’s growth, one of Africa’s fastest for more than a decade.
Hyundai business partner Haile Gebrselassie said some of the cars will be exported to the region.
“This plant is big enough (to assemble) for Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan,” he said.