To consolidate its position and expand market share, the country’s second largest car manufacturer, Hyundai Motor India will launch a refreshed version of one of its models in the compact segment, a totally new, spruced up version of its mid-size sedan, Verna and a new SUV, which will also be the company’s fourth offering in the utility vehicle segment.
In total there will be three to four introductions from the company next calendar year aimed at offering a stiff competition to market leader Maruti Suzuki.
The current calendar year has been one of the best for Hyundai since it registered wholesale volumes of 5 lakh units in the domestic market and 50,000 units in October, which is the highest in a particular month in India so far.
“In the first quarter, we will introduce refreshed version of one of our products in the compact segment, there will be a full model change of Verna and there will be a fourth offering from Hyundai in the utility vehicle segment but it may not come in 2017,” said Puneet Anand, general manager (marketing) and group head, Hyundai Motor India.
In the current year most of the growth in the car market came from the utility vehicle segment and Hyundai wants to take a lead in the segment by increasing its offerings, especially in the compact SUV segment. Recently Hyundai reintroduced Tucson – a full SUV- in the domestic market and Creta – its first compact SUV- has been doing 8,000-9,000 units average per month in the last one year.
“We believe customers in the domestic market like the ones in United States, China and Europe will move towards utility vehicles.
This year also most of the growth has come from the utility vehicle segment. This year we sold half a million vehicles in India and next year we will try to better it. Hyundai has been the fastest manufacturer of 7 million cars in India and we will continue to maintain it,” added Anand.
