Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL), country’s second largest car maker, today said that the northern region that accounts for 15 per cent of total sales for Hyundai was an important market for the company.
Nalin Kapoor, Senior General Manager and Group Head Marketing said that north had always given a fillip to the market and good monsoon giving hopes for economy to bounce back indicated better times. He agreed that currently automobile industry was passing through a rough patch but hastened to add that ?Hyundai has been able to withstand the recessionary trends and negative effect in view of healthy export figures. In fact Hyundai has been able to improve its market share by another 1.6 per cent during the ongoing financial year over previous year.”
In Chandigarh to launch premium entry-level Grand i10, Kapoor said that the Hyundai plants in Chennai have a total capacity of 6.40 lakh units per annum and last year the company exported about 2.50 lakh units and sold about 4 lakh units in the domestic market. In way exports have been able to offset the rupee depreciation that had led to higher input costs, he commented.
Kapoor said that ?The Grand is a world-class product developed for the Indian market. It offers an ideal urban mobility with a complete package from style to performance creating a new benchmark in the compact high entry segment.? The Grand will be available with two engine options the 1.1 litre advanced 2nd generation U2 CRDi diesel and 1.2 litre Kappa Dual VTVT petrol offering a combination of optimum performance and best-in-class fuel economy. To suit the requirements of the Indian customers there are some India specific developments carried out on Grand. Dimensionally Grand is longer and has larger wheelbase compared to its European version to cater to the space related need of Indian customers.
Anurag Singh, Zonal Manager, North said that Hyundai was pinning high hopes on northern market where it has 50 dealers while Chandigarh has three and tricity as a whole has six dealers. The new car launched today has eight variants. The petrol version is priced between Rs 4.29 lakh and Rs 5.47 lakh, while the diesel version is available in the range of Rs 5.33 lakh to Rs 6.53 lakh (ex-showroom, Chandigarh).
