AUTOS

Hyundai’s Big Push: Hyundai Motor America Inc. is getting ready to unveil the Accent, which replaces the Korean car maker’s workhorse Excel for the 1995 model year.

But executives at the company’s Fountain Valley headquarters are looking far beyond the new subcompact.

The Korean parent company, Hyundai Motor Co., has launched a $5-billion plant expansion program in South Korea and intends to join the list of the world’s 10 largest car makers by the turn of the century.

As part of the push, Hyundai Motor America’s Fountain Valley design studio has been working hard on several vehicles for the U.S. market, reportedly including a sports utility vehicle.

Kia Motors Corp., which trails Hyundai in auto production but is South Korea’s biggest truck maker, is introducing its sports utility--the Sportage--in North America next month through its Irvine-based U.S. arm, Kia Motors America.