In the driving seat! Hyundai topples Ford to be India's top car exporter

Hyundai is the only company among top five exporters to clock a growth this year

Korean carmaker Hyundai dislodged Ford to reclaim the tag of the biggest car exporter from India after a gap of one year. 

Hyundai, which exports vehicles to more than 80 destinations from India, managed to clock a 23 per cent growth in shipments during the April-August period of the financial year 2018-19.

The company's growth comes even as the total passenger vehicle (cars, utility vehicles and vans) export from the country declined more than three per cent to 291,896 units in the first five months, according to Siam data. American carmaker Ford, which emerged as the biggest exporter from India -- for the first time -- last year, is now second again after its export volume declined by 12.52 per cent to 65,176 units during April-August period. In entire FY18, the company had achieved a record export of 181,148 units, ahead of Hyundai's 153,942 units.

So far, the current year has not been great for the leading car exporters from India. In the top five list of exporters- Hyundai, Ford, Maruti Suzuki, General Motors and Volkswagen- it is only Hyundai which is clocking a growth. Maruti Suzuki has seen a decline of five per cent while General Motors and Volkswagen have slipped by five and 26 per cent, respectively. Except for Maruti and Hyundai, the other top exporters sell more units in exports than in the domestic market.

In FY18, Hyundai's exports had declined by eight per cent. But the surge in this financial year is coming on account of a sharp growth in the export volume of its hatchback Grandi10 and Verna. A total of 20,749 units of Grandi10 were exported between April and July this year (latest available model-wise export data shows), up 59 per cent YoY. A total of 7,118 Verna sedans were exported by the Korean auto major against none in the same period last year. Besides these two models, the company also exported over 6,600 units of Xcent and over 7,200 Elitei20 cars.   

Y K Koo, managing director and CEO, Hyundai Motor India, recently said that after Vietnam and Philippines, a few more countries, including some in Asia and South America, are planning to increase tax rates for car exported as completely built units (CBUs). "Therefore, the company has started exporting cars in a completely knocked-down form that ensures additional volumes. This is a change of strategy in the company's export division," Koo said.

Ford did not comment on the queries on the decline in export volumes. Exports of all models- Figo, Figo Aspire and EcoSport- have reported a decline. Export is highly critical for Ford’s India operations since as much as 60 per cent of the sales contribution come from exports. A company official, however, did say that the numbers will pick up in the coming months with the introduction of new models.