Hyundai Santro slows to make way for big cars

Sales of Santro, once a runaway bestseller whose tall-boy design changed the dynamics of the small car market, have slowed in recent months. Is it just a reflection of current trends?

Hyundai’s tall-boy Santro, once the racehorse in its stable, hasn’t been having a great run lately. Between June 2020 and July 2020 sales dropped by 11 per cent; if we step back a little — between July 2019 and July 2020 — the drop was sharper at 75 per cent.

This, when mass-market carmakers registered sales of 197,523 units last month, a tad short of July 2019 numbers but a substantial 69 per cent increase over June 2020 figures of 116,969 units.

Hyundai reported domestic sales of 38,200 units in July, only a 2 per cent decline year-on-year. The company