Auto major Hyundai targets Creta customers with seven-seater Alacazar

The new SUV is being pitched as a premium car; company is expected to launch it with both petrol and diesel powertrains

South Korean carmaker Hyundai will venture into a new segment of seven-seater SUVs with the Alcazar.

The company believes that the new product will help it to strengthen its dominating market share in the SUV segment- which is the fastest growing space in India’s auto industry. Hyundai Motor Group emerged on top of the SUV sales charts for Calendar Year 2020 with Hyundai and Kia dominating the proceedings. Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) sells Venue, Creta and Tucson in the domestic market

“A lot of our last year launches were segment creators. Similar to this we believe that the new segment we are entering will also create a new segment,” said Tarun Garg, director, sales, marketing and services.

The Alcazar, said Garg will be targeting customers who want to upgrade from the Creta- the company’s successful model of which it has sold 6,00,000 units.

“To be frank, we had market research where we could clearly see that we have sold over 6 lakh Cretas and many of these customers are looking for an upgrade. They feel that they have now reached a notch higher in their life and they want to travel in luxury, they want to have premium-ness in their car, and they want a little more versatility,” said Garg.

Garg said that the seven seater SUV will be targeting nuclear families with teenagers want to travel in comfortable space and sometime you would like to be chauffer driven. Then the second and third row comes in handy.

“With the lockdown, people want to trspend more time with family, travel together in a car.If you see the trend of vacation, it was about taking a flight and fly to some international destination. Now it has changed to places within five to six hours range where they can drive with family,” he said

SUV segment is the fastest growing section in India’s auto market contributing 34 percent of sales in 2021 as compared to 2020. Hyundai now has the largest share in SUV with a market share of 26 percent.

“Very clearly, we have a range of products there- electric, less than 4 metre or more than 4 metre and now with three or four row SUV..All of them have been a trend setter,” Garg said.