Hyundai Raises Forecast at Alabama Plant by 61%

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s largest automaker, raised its forecast for production at an Alabama factory next year by 61%.

Hyundai Motor increased its production target to 150,000 cars in 2005 from an earlier forecast of 93,000 cars, a spokesman said. The Montgomery, Ala., plant will start operation in March.

Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp., the country’s second-largest automaker, are aiming to become the world’s fifth-largest carmaking group by 2010, producing 3 million vehicles in South Korea and 2 million units overseas.