Hyundai said it decided to invest at least 1 trillion won in developing environmentally-friendly vehicles, including hybrid electric cars, fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen-powered vehicles, by 2007. It will increase its workforce in relevant research and developments to 10,000 persons from the current 6,200.

the development of such vehicles is a crucial task if Hyundai is to achieve its goal of becoming one of the world's top five automakers by 2010.

The (Korean) government finalized a bill backing the development of environmentally-friendly vehicles on June 15.

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If I were Detroit, I wouldn't be laughing. These guys are serious, and they have the government behind them.

Good for Hyundai!

We need a world of environmentally friendly cars. The more the world's car manufacturers get seriously into hybrid, the more the Detroit manufacturers will be left standing alone as the great polluters and gas guzzlers of the world.

Currently Detroit is going into hybrids only to the degree necessary to offset the high fuel use and pollution numbers of their other vehicles (helps provide the averages required by government). It's time for an attitude change.