Hyundai targets 60 lakh production milestone from Indian operations

New Delhi: Korean auto major Hyundai is targeting 60 lakh cumulative production milestone from its Indian operations this year, nearly two decades after it started selling cars in the country.

The company, which today launched i20 Active, a sports-styled version of its premium hatchback i20, expects domestic market to account for 40 lakh units of its overall production so far in India.

The company’s wholly-owned arm Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) expects to grow over 13 per cent in the current year, a growth of over 5 percent over last year.

“In 2013, we crossed the total cumulative production milestone of five million units in India. This year we are planning our production roll out to cross six million units,” HMIL senior vice-president (sales and marketing) Rakesh Srivastava told reporters in New Delhi.

Of the total, four million will be for the domestic market and two million for exports, he said.

Commenting on the company’s plans for the Indian market, he said: “We expect to sell 4.65 lakh units this year, a growth of 13 percent. Last year we had a market share of 16.2 percent and this year we expect it to increase to 17.2 percent.”

Srivastava said car sales in India grew by 3.2 percent last year, while HMIL saw 8 percent increase; this year, when the industry is expected to clock 7-8 percent, the company is targeting 13 percent growth in sales.

HMIL is bullish that its new i20 Active will play a significant role in enhancing leadership role of the i20 range in the company’s portfolio.

“When we launched the i20 Elite we were targeting to sell around 15,000 units a month but it didn’t happen. Now with the i20 Active coming it we expect our monthly numbers to go up significantly,” HMIL managing director & CEO BS Seo said.

While the company did not share the exact sales expectations from the i20 Active, a company official said it was targeting to sell “2-3 times that of Toyota Etios Cross which sells about 800-900 units a month”.

The i20 Active will compete with the likes of Toyota Etios Cross, Volkswagen Cross Polo and Fiat Avventura which are priced in range of Rs 6.23 lakh and Rs 8.5 lakh respectively.

Petrol variants of i20 Active are priced between Rs 6.38-7.09 lakh, while diesel versions are in the range of Rs 7.63-8.89 lakh.

Hyundai is gearing up for a full play in the fast emerging sports utility vehicle segment to add volumes.

The company is set to introduce ix25 SUV in India around August-September this year, ahead of the festive season.

This would then complete HMIL’s range of SUVs in India.

With i20 Active, the company plans to address lower-end customers, who are looking for a sporty and stylish vehicle.

The company already sells premium SUV Santa Fe, priced up to Rs 29.94 lakh.

Last month, the company had launched the updated version of its mid-sized sedan Verna, priced up to Rs 12.19 lakh.

PTI