(Yicai Global) Sept.30 -- Hyundai Motor Group plans to buy all the shares held by its Chinese partner in their Sichuan province-based joint venture by next year, with a view to hydrogen fuel car production in the province, an executive at Hyundai Motor told Yicai Global yesterday.

Sichuan Hyundai Motor, the JV, will become China's first foreign-invested commercial car company to achieve full overseas ownership, as well as the second foreign-owned carmaker in China after Tesla, if the transaction reaches fruition.

The company is mulling making H-fuel cars in the southwestern Chinese province and seeking partnerships with local government and companies to that end.

Formed in August 2012, Sichuan Hyundai Motor, half-owned by Ziyang-based Sichuan Nanjun Automobile Group and Seoul-based Hyundai Motor, currently mainly produces commercial vehicles, engines and car parts, according to the Qixinbao company data platform.

Sichuan Hyundai Motor projected the maximum output of its two factories in Ziyang and Chengdu, Sichuan province at 160,000 units in its annual report. It sold 2,087 cars from January to August in a steep drop from the 38,560 units it moved in 2016. The company was rumored at one time to be in the midst of a shutdown.

Sichuan's provincial government penned a hydrogen-fuel agreement with Hyundai Motor, the government said in a statement on Sept.2. It, Sichuan Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Motor have set up a special team to promote H-fuel car production and H-fuel stations.

Editor: Ben Armour