Hyundai has issued a release that says the race to find the site for Hyundai's European car manufacturing plant is hotting up – with the list now having been reduced to four candidates – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

However, a report in today's Prague Business Journal says Hyundai management officially announced to the CzechInvest agency yesterday that the Czech Republic would not be chosen. According to the agency, Hyundai demanded such concessions and incentives that the $1.5 billion investment would not have been profitable for the Czech Republic. The same source suggests only Poland and Slovakia, with lower wages and taxes than the other candidates, are still in the running.

Hyundai's European plant will produce 300,000 units of so far unconfirmed models a year, from 2007. Meanwhile Hyundai has also announced plants for a second joint venture, Beijing Hyundai Motor assembly plant in China which will take its capacity there to 600,000 units, three years earlier than originally planned.