AUTOSHOW-Hyundai Europe aims to double sales by 2010

PARIS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co Ltd <005380.KS> aims roughly to double sales in Europe by 2010 from the 350,000 units it sold last year, while remaining one of the most profitable brands in the region, a top executive said on Wednesday.

"We want to be a volume and profit leader in Europe," Gerry Dorizas, vice president of Hyundai Motor Europe told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Paris.

With a new assembly plant due to open in the second half of 2008 in the Czech Republic, Dorizas said Hyundai would reduce its exposure to currency fluctuations, which knocked more than two percentage points off its operating margin in the region last year.

Dorizas said Hyundai's European operations had a margin of around four percent in 2005, or 6.4 percent before taking into account currency factors.

Hyundai has more than tripled its European sales since 1995 with the launch of products such as the Santa Fe and Tucson sport utility vehicles, and aims to continue that growth with a new C segment -- or large sedan -- car, a design prototype of which will be unveiled at the Paris car show this week.

Dorizas told the industry conference that Hyundai would eventually target annual sales of 150,000 units of the new model.

((Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, writing by Alexander Smith; editing by Quentin Bryar; Reuters Messaging: ran.kim.reuters.com@reuters.net; +81-3-5473-3744; ran.kim@reuters.com))

Keywords: AUTOS HYUNDAI EUROPE