Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's top automaker, aims to sell about 17 percent more cars in India this year as the fast-growing south Asian country boosts consumer spending, a top official said on Friday.

But exports from Hyundai's unit in India are set to drop by up to 3.5 percent in 2010 as global car demand loses steam.

Hyundai, the second-biggest car maker in India behind Japan's Suzuki Motor Co's unit Maruti Suzuki, hopes to sell 340,000 vehicles in 2010 from 290,000 last year, H.W. Park, managing director of Hyundai India, told reporters.

Industry car sales in India jumped a third in the June quarter and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Association has forecast full-year sales to grow 12-13 percent in the financial year ending next March.

India's economy is forecast to expand around 8.5 percent in 2010/11, the fastest pace after China among major economies, and this is expected to drive demand for cars and other vehicles.

Hyundai, which started operations in India in 1996, has a 19 percent share of the Indian car market with products such as compact hatchbacks Santro, i10 and i20, which compete with Maruti's Alto, Swift, Wagon R and Ritz.

Hyundai is the leading exporter of cars from India, but overseas sales are expected to slow down to 250,000-255,000 units in 2010 from 259,000 last year, Park said.

Due to scrappage scheme the demand was very high from Europe last year. Now it has come back to normal, he said.

In 2009, governments of European countries including the United Kingdom and Germany introduced schemes selling new cars at a discount in exchange for older cars, to boost the sales of automobiles.

Hyundai, which also makes sedans such as Accent, Verna and Sonata, suffered a production loss of 2,000 units worth about 630 million rupees ($13.7 million) due to a three-day strike in June, spokesman Rajiv Mitra said.

We will be able to make up this loss in the next two months, he said.

($1=46 rupees)

(Reporting by Sanjeev Choudhary; Writing by Janaki Krishnan; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

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