GUWAHATI, May 29: South Korean auto major Hyundai
will drive in its first electric vehicle ‘Kona’ SUV into India
in July, followed by a brand new ‘Grand i10’ before the
festive season as it looks to increase its share in the auto
market here, a top company official said Wednesday.
Besides, the automaker, which is present in India
through its wholly-owned subsidiary Hyundai Motor India Ltd
(HMIL), is planning to start exporting its latest compact SUV
‘Venue’ from its Chennai factory in the next 3-4 months.
“We are constantly adding new products in our
poprtfolio for the Indian market. We will launch our electric
SUV ‘Kona’ in India in July,” HMIL Senior General Manager and
Group Head (Marketing) Puneet Anand told PTI here.
He, however, declined to share specification details
of the proposed sports utility vehicle planned for India.
Earlier, Hyundai had announced plans to launch its
first electric vehicle in a completely knock-down (CKD) form,
which would be assembled at HMIL’s manufacturing plant in
Chennai.
“After the electric vehicle, we will introduce a full
model change variant of an existing small car. It is going to
be the ‘Grand i10’ and it will hit the roads before the
festival season this year,” Anand said.
When asked about its latest compact SUV ‘Venue’, the
senior official said the company has already received over
20,000 bookings and the waiting period of the vehicle is
around 3-4 months at present depending upon different options.
“We are currently producing around 7,000 units of the
‘Venue’ per month at our Chennai plant. We have the capability
to ramp up production and we plan to increase the output to
monthly 10,000 units within next 3-4 months,” Anand explained.
On exports of the model, he said the company’s first
aim is to fulfill the requirement of the domestic market and
does not have immediate plans to sell overseas countries.
“After we stabilise the sales in India, we will start
exporting the ‘Venue’ to our existing strong overseas markets.
I do not think the export will begin before next 3-4 months,”
Anand said.
On May 21, HMIL forayed into the high selling compact
SUV segment in India with the launch of new model ‘Venue’ with
three engine options — 1.0 litre turbo and 1.2 litre petrol
powertrains besides 1.4 litre diesel engine — and placed
below the ‘Creta’ in terms of price and positioning.
Talking about the slowdown in auto market, Anand said
the slump in sales began from Kerala flood last year and is
continuing till now.
“We hope that with the launch of various new products by
our company and other automakers, the market will revive.
Also, a stable government coming to power at the Centre will
help in this regard and the industry is likely to bounce back
in the next 4-5 months,” he added.
Domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales dropped by 17.07
per cent in April, the steepest fall since October 2011, as
weak customer sentiment led by liquidity crunch, uncertainty
revolving elections and high product prices hit sales.
The sales declined for the sixth straight month in April
to 2,47,541 units as against 2,98,504 units in the year-ago
month. It is the worst dip in PV sales since October 2011,
when sales had dropped by 19.87 per cent.
All major segments, including two-wheelers and commercial
vehicles, witnessed a decline in sales in April. (PTI)
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