(Yicai) Sept. 30 -- Beijing Hyundai Motor, a joint venture of South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor and China's BAIC Motor, has rejected a report that it plans to let go of staff in batches.

Beijing Hyundai is making standard personnel adjustments as part of its annual staff appraisal procedures based on business performance, the carmaker told media yesterday. The firm is actively recruiting young talents, seeking to hire over 100 workers this year, it added.

According to a report by Cls, a source told the Chinese financial media outlet that Beijing Hyundai plans to optimize its staff in two batches, likely impacting around 30 percent of its employees.

Beijing Hydundai's recruitment information is available on its website and third-party recruitment platforms such as Liepin, according to the company.

Beijing Hyundai is hiring live sales, live hosts, product planning and operations, and administrative staff, as well as equipment maintenance and on-site engine engineers, Yicai found on recruiting sites.

Set up in 2002, Beijing Hyundai was once one of China's most successful auto JVs. But sales shrank to 236,000 units last year from a peak of 1.1 million in 2014, mainly because of the emergence of China's own auto brands. It sold only 114,200 cars in the eight months ended Aug. 31, down 23 percent from a year ago.

Beijing Hyundai scaled back production in the face of falling sales. The firm sold its factory in Beijing's Shunyi district to Chinese new energy vehicle startup Li Auto in 2021, and it announced this January that it had sold another in Chongqing to a local state-owned investment group at a price 80 percent below construction costs.

Editor: Martin Kadiev