Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) on Monday said that the company stopped exports to European countries last month from its Chennai facility and will now focus on the domestic market.
Production from India will be exported only to a few countries now, including in Latin America, West Asia, and Asia, besides Australia and New Zealand.
The European markets will be served by Hyundai’s plants in Turkey and Czechoslovakia, Rakesh Srivastava, Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, told reporters here.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the new ‘Elite i20’ here, he said HMIL’s exports will drop by almost 25 per cent to 1.90 lakh units this year from around 2.53 lakh units last year as a result of this decision.
“Our priority is the domestic market right now, so our European models (like Grand i10 and i20) will be manufactured out of Turkey and Czech Republic plants, as we have to create the capacity for Indian markets at the Chennai plant,” he said.
He said that the decision was taken given the domestic demand for its four new launches over the last one year, the Grand i10, Xcent, Santa FE and Elite i20.
“With production of 6.33 lakh units last year, we utilised 98.5 per cent of the total capacity of 6.40 lakh units a year. The plant can be expanded to produce 6.80 lakh units a year,” Srivastava said, adding that HMIL accounted for 45 per cent of the total cars exported from India last year.
The manufacturer is also targeting total sales of 4.10 lakh units in the domestic market this year, up by around eight per cent from 3.80 lakh units last year, he said.
“Our market share is also growing. From 20.8 per cent share in the overall passenger car sales in India, we have grown to 23 per cent market share from January to July this year,” Srivastava added.
The company has launched the second generation i20 (Elite i20), priced between ₹4,89,900 and ₹7,66,900 (ex-showroom, New Delhi), in both petrol (1.2-litre) and diesel (1.4-litre) variants. It has stopped production of the older generation i20. While the petrol variant is priced between ₹4,89,900 and ₹6,46,900, the diesel version is priced between ₹6,09,900 and ₹7,66,900. There will be four variants each for the petrol and diesel engines.
The new ‘premium’ hatchback comes with sporty multi-function steering wheel and boot space of 285 litres, rear AC vents, and fully automatic temperature control, among other features.
It will be competing with the likes of Maruti Suzuki’s Swift, Fiat’s Punto and Volkswagen’s Polo. While the petrol version will deliver mileage of 18.24 kmpl, the diesel variant offers 21.76 kmpl (as per tests), the company added.