Auto major Hyundai Motor on Tuesday said the company deeply regrets the offence caused to Indians by “unauthorised Kashmir-related social media posts” by its distributor in Pakistan.
On Sunday, the Indian subsidiary of the South Korean carmaker faced a massive backlash on social media after a dealer of the auto giant in Pakistan posted a controversial message supporting separatists in Kashmir, and #BoycottHyundai trended on Twitter in India.
“As a business policy, Hyundai Motor Company does not comment on political or religious issues in any specific region. Therefore it is clearly against the Hyundai Motor’s policy that the independently owned distributor in Pakistan made unauthorized Kashmir related social media posts from their own accounts,” the company said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
Responding to the furore, Hyundai emphasised that it has been investing in India for many decades and “remains strongly committed to Indian customers”.
“We deeply regret any offense caused to the people of India by this unofficial social media activity,” it said.
The company further mentioned that once the situation was brought to its attention, it made the distributor acutely aware of the “inappropriateness of the action”.
“We have since taken measures to ensure the distributor which misused the Hyundai brand identity has removed the social media posts and we have put in place processes to prevent a future recurrence,” the company’s mentioned in the Twitter post.
The auto major clarified that its subsidiary, Hyundai Motor India, is not associated with the distributor in Pakistan.
“We strongly reject the distributor’s unauthorized non-business related social media activity,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Centre has asked the carmaker to be more forceful in its unequivocal apology, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said today on Hyundai’s Pakistan partner’s controversial tweet on Kashmir.
Hyundai is the second-largest player in the country after Maruti Suzuki India. At present, it sells 12 models including Creta and Venue in the domestic market.
Late last year Hyundai Motor announced plans to infuse around Rs 4,000 crore into research and development over the next seven years as it is set to launch six new electric vehicles in India by 2028. Plus, it is planning to make India a global production hub for electric cars.
