Hyundai plans sedan in place of defunct Accent, SUV, MPV

Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) has said that it will launch one or two products every year to boost its market share in the Indian passenger car industry, which is currently facing rough roads.

The Korean automajor's Indian subsidiary said that the company may look at launching a sedan in place of defunct Accent, SUV, MPV and others.

Speaking to reporters in Chennai today Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice president (marketing & sales), HMIL said, “in the last five years seven brands were introduced by the company, which shows the commitment of the company to the Indian market”.

Going forward over the next 3-4 years the company will launch one or two products every year. These does not include the existing products which will be launched after refurbishment.

He added the products will also be based on the Grandi10 platform, the global product which was launched in India on Tuesday, the company may look at less than four metre compact sedan to replace Accent going forward.

“Hyundai's brand was very well accepted in this segment and it was a trend setter, now we don't have brand on this segment. We see opportunity in compact or below four meter segment”. He noted, every month this segment also reporting 22,000 units sales in the industry.

Hyundai also looking at MPV and SUV segments, Srivastava says of the total passenger car industry, about 25% sales comes from MPV and SUV segments.

Some of the market leaders include Renault, Duster, Toyoto, Mahindra and others. “We are observing this segment and volume in this segment is good,” said Srivastava.

These new launches coming at time when the industry and company has reported a negative sales.

While the industry reported a 14% de-growth during January-August 2013, Hyundai's sales dropped by 4% during the same period. Srivastava is confident that the company will report positive growth and it will be driven by new Grand, in which the company invested Rs 1,000 crore to develop the product and another $300 million to set up engine facility.

As of August Hyundai has sold around 2.5 lakh in the domestic market and 1.8 lakh on exports.

He noted, Hyundai could able to increase its market share to 20.8% as of August from 18.8 last year.