SEOUL, Dec 17 (Reuters) - South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co said on Wednesday it would invest 700 billion won ($588 million) to improve environmental standards on vehicles by 2008 to meet tighter government rules on emissions.
As part of its environmental strategy, the government wants 20,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) buses in service by 2007 and 800 CNG clean cars by 2010, it said. Hyundai also plans to replace existing buses used at its workplaces across the country with new clean ones gradually.
"Hyundai will boost investment sharply in developing low-pollution vehicles to support the government's anti-atmospheric contamination campaign," the company said in a statement.
Hyundai said it would initially spend 500 billion won in 2004 to develop a technology that could reduce gas emission from disel vehicles.
In a later statement, Hyundai said in a public notice to the stock exchange that the investment would be made jointly with DaimlerChrysler AG , which owns 10 percent of Hyundai.
DaimlerChrysler is seeking to deepen its ties with Hyundai by launching a 50/50 joint venture in South Korea to manufacture trucks.
Shares in Hyundai Motor ended the day down 2.8 percent at 48,300 won versus the main bourse's 1.3 percent.
($1=1190.0 Won)