Hyundai makes a 'Smartivity' move to take on rivals in SUV market

The car-maker grew market share marginally, thanks to an early focus on 'smart mobility' but it's in the competitive and fast-growing SUV market that this strategy will be truly tested

Three or four years ago, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) decided to transform itself from a plain vanilla car-maker to a “smart mobility company”. To this end, the company started investing in new technologies to develop connected vehicles and exploring manufacturing and sales efficiencies.

Those early efforts paid off when the pandemic hit car sales. In calendar 2020, though sales dropped in line with industry trends, Hyundai's market share grew marginally (see chart). Seen against the over one percentage point fall in the market share of Maruti, the country’s largest car-maker, this near-flat growth indicates staying power.  

The Korean automaker stayed the