Hyundai India is finally planning to hit the sweet spot with a compact SUV being under works. Bo Shin Seo, Hyundai Motor India head, admits that the manufacturer is preparing a compact SUV for the Indian market to rival the Renault Duster, Mahindra Quanto, Ford’s soon to be launched EcoSport, etc. Seo claims that Hyundai Motor India has a strong capability to develop new products and they are planning to do so but the schedule is not decided yet. Thus we can expect a launch to take place not before next year.
According to Seo, the Indian market is more important to the manufacturer despite the tough environment it has grown and the Korean company has enough potential to improve the market share. Currently, Hyundai India’s market share in the passenger car space has increased from 0.2% to 19.5%. The company has set a target to sell around 6,50,000 vehicles in the year 2013. The company is planning to add new products to its portfolio starting from this year, which includes the new Santa Fe and next generation i10.
Hyundai doesn’t have a small SUV or an MPV for the Indian market and the manufacturer needs to introduce new products in order to conquer these segments. This compact SUV is likely to be based on the i20 platform. Hyundai has been selling the Tucson (the same generation which was sold in India) in China, by giving it a minor facelift. The Korean automobile manufacturer is known for offering unending list of features compared to its rivals, so we expect the upcoming compact SUV to be feature rich and offer good value to the Indian customer.
