Hyundai`s exports to dip by 9% as focus shifts to domestic market

India's largest exporter of passenger cars Hyundai Motors India Ltd (HMIL) is estimating a close to nine per cent drop in exports this fiscal as the company decides to focus on the domestic market.

The company is planning to sell around 4 lakh cars in the domestic market this year, up from 3.56 lakh units last year. Exports, however, will decline from 2.47 lakh units last year to 2.25 lakh units in 2010-11, informed Arvind Saxena, director, sales and marketing, HMIL.

With the newly launched Fluidic Verna sedan, Hyundai plans to increase its market share in the mid-sized sedan segment from a 17 per cent at present to 25 per cent within a year's time. The upper end of the mid-sized sedan segment accounts for a third of the overall sales in the segment and is likely to grow by 25- 30 per cent. Hyundai plans to sell around 45,000 units of the car within a year. The new Verna, available in petrol and diesel variants, is tagged between Rs 6.99 lakh and Rs 10.75 lakh has already received 5,000 bookings for the car within five days of the launch.

"We would not like to lose any domestic demand, we would first like to cater to the demand within the country. Moreover, our major export market, Europe, is not showing much demand.", Saxena explained. The EU accounts for nearly 45 per cent of Hyundai's exports from India. Another reason behind the dipping exports is that the company has decided to shift the export base of the i-20 compact car from India to Turkey. "We used to export the i-20 hatchback also from India, but now have shifted the export base for the car to Turkey as it made more economic sense.", Saxena said.

Hyundai is also planning to launch nine models across segments in India by 2015 to maintain an overall market share of 20 per cent, and with a production constraint of 6.6 lakh units per annum, is now shifting export bases of some of its cars to other countries.

HMIL presently sells compact cars including the Santro, i-10 and i-20 here besides mid-sized sedans Accent and Verna, a premium sedan Sonata and a sports utility vehicle Santa Fe. The Indian market contributed to eight per cent of Hyundai's global sales last year.