The factory will be capable of producing more than 100,000 fuel cell systems, which include the fuel-cell stack and power control unit, annually from around 2024, Jeon Soon-il, a Hyundai Motor Group executive in its fuel cell division, said at a conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.

He declined to name which countries had been shortlisted.

A new factory in Chungju, South Korea, capable of making 40,000 systems a year, will be ready by the end of June, some two and a half years ahead of schedule, Jeon said.

Hyundai's current fuel-cell system production capacity is about 12,000 annually, Jeon said.

A spokesman for Hyundai Mobis, the unit of Hyundai Motor Group that makes fuel-cell systems, declined to comment about any plans for new hydrogen fuel-cell systems production, but confirmed that the group is considering a new eco-friendly auto parts factory, with details not yet decided.

(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Jason Neely and Tom Hogue)

Stocks treated in this article : Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai Mobis Co.,Ltd