Hyundai Motor dreams big with small car

Hyundai Motor India (HMIL), the second-largest carmaker in the country, is betting heavily on its yet-to-be-launched small car to penetrate into the rural market, a top executive of the company said.

According to YK Koo, Senior Director (Sales and Marketing) HMIL, the small car will be launched in the first half of next year and the company has no immediate plans to export the car.

"We are planning to launch it in the first half of next year. The car will be manufactured in Indian plant. HMI is very strong in compact car segment. With this launch, we hope to dominate the rural market also. That is our strategy. If we have a small car it is easy to penetrate into the rural market," Yoo said on the sidelines of launch of Fluidic Verna in Andhra Pradesh market.

To a query on market share, he admitted that the brand is slightly losing sheen to the competitors. He, however, was quick to add that the situation arose as there was no new vehicle launches in 2010.

"We did not have any new product last year. But our competitors like Volkswagen, Ford and Nissan have all launched new vehicles. Even Maruti launched a new version of Alto. We don't have any new launches. Still our market share is at 19.7%. The previous year it was 20.2%."

The Korean car maker said they are willing to reduce exports in order to meet domestic demands and currently have no plans to increase plant capacity from the present 6.25 lakh units per annum. Currently, Hyundai exports around 2.25 lakh cars from India to other countries.

"We launched a new Verna this year. To regain the market share of 20% is our target for this year (Jan to Dec). With new Verna, we aim to sell 4,000 to 5,000 units per month," Yoo said said.

"New product will always create new demand," he said, adding that going forward Hyundai will launch at least two new vehicles per year to stay ahead of the competitors.