C K Birla Group-owned Hindustan Motors, one of the country's oldest carmaker, plans to double manufacturing capacity at Thiruvallur plant near here by 2012 end, a top company official said.

"The Thiruvallur plant has a capacity of 12,000 units and this year the company should be reaching close to 5,000 units. Next year it should touch 10,000 units and two years down the line, capacity would be doubled to reach 24,000," Hindustan Motors India Executive-Vice President Y V S Vijay Kumar told PTI.

The company currently has two manufacturing facilities in India, one at Thiruvallur and the other at Uttarpara in West Bengal.

Hindustan Motors sells passenger vehicles, including premium sedan Lancer-Cedia, Outlander, Pajero and Montero, in India in technical collaboration with Japanese automaker Mitsubishi.

The Thiruvallur plant manufactures Cedia, Outlander, Pajero and Montero while the Uttarpara facility produces the Ambassador and multi-utility vehicles--Trekker, Porter and Pushpak.

Last year, the company had sold 2,200 units in the country. Kumar said the company would make only "minimum investments" for doubling plant capacity, but did not elaborate.

The Thiruvallur plant began as a facility for manufacturing earth moving equipment three decades ago and in 1998 started manufacturing cars as well.

About the launch of "Evolution" series in India, he said the company would bring out the premium luxury sedan Mitsubishi Evolution 'EVOX' in August this year.

"This will be a very high performance four seater capacity sedan with 300 BHP and will deliver very high horse power," Vijay Kumar said.