With 1,800 bookings per day, Exter's waiting period goes up to 12 weeks

Hyundai launched its small SUV Exter for the Indian car market on July 10 at a starting price of Rs 6 lakh (ex-showroom). So far, the car has received more than 16,000 bookings since May, COO at Hyundai, Tarun Garg told Autocar India (ACI).

Elaborating on the bookings for the Exter, Garg said that Hyundai is receiving about 1,800 bookings every day. He added that one in three of the bookings are for the AMT, whereas 22 per cent of bookings were for the CNG variant of the Exter. 40 per cent of buyers were looking for petrol manual variants, Tarun Garg was cited as saying in the ACI report.

Given the high demand and popularity of the vehicle, the waiting period for the Exter has gone up to 12 weeks in some cases. While Exter manual and CNG variants have a waiting period of about six to eight weeks, the automatic versions have a delivery period ranging from 10 to 12 weeks.

Punching its rivals in the face

The Exter has been launched in a segment that has vehicles like Tata Punch, Citroen C3, and Maruti Suzuki Ignis. However, Exter has Punch as its primary rival which is selling in large numbers and is a hit among Indian car buyers. Since May, when the bookings for the Exter began, Tata has sold more than 22,00o units of the Punch. During the same period, Citroen's C3 and Maruti Suzuki Ignis have sold far fewer units at 1,500 and 8,900, respectively, the ACI report added.

With its feature-rich offerings, the Exter is expected to give a tough fight to the segment leader, Tata Punch. The Exter comes with many segment-first features which include a voice-enabled sunroof, dashcam, and six airbags across all the variants.

Tarun Garg told ACI that the company expects Exter to bring large volumes of sales. He said that the consumer's increased preference for SUV body style over hatches is behind the large sales of SUVs in the country.