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The country’s second largest car maker Hyundai on Friday unveiled its fifth generation all-new sedan Verna to revive its presence in the mid-size sedan segment, which is now dominated by Maruti Ciaz and Honda City.
The new Verna, which has been developed on Hyundai’s new K2 platform with an investment of ₹1,040 crore, will formally be launched on August 22.
Bookings opened today and will close on August 21. Buyers can book the new Verna by paying ₹ 25,000.The starting price is expected at little lower than ₹10 lakh. “We expect to deliver the new Verna to first 10,000 customers before Deepavali. We are looking at a monthly volume of around 4,000-4,500 units and hope to regain our dominance in this segment,” said YK Koo, Managing Director & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), after unveiling the car to media persons at its factory near Chennai.
From a position of dominance two-three years ago, Verna’s monthly volumes have fallen to 700 units from about 4,500 units earlier.
Launch of new Honda City and Maruti Ciaz impacted its volumes and sales started to decline.
“Though price is one of the key elements, advanced technology, design and new features attract more customers in the mid-size sedan segment,” felt Koo.
The new Verna comes with 1.6 litre petrol and diesel engines with both manual and automatic transmissions. Also, in terms of safety it is much better than its previous version due to K2 platform’s super body structure.
The new Verna comes with six airbags.
“With two powerful engine variants, Verna will be the most powerful sedan in its segment,” said Koo.
HMIL has so far sold 3.17 lakh units of the Verna in India since its introduction in 2006.
Export plansHMIL also plans to export new Verna to markets like West Asia and Latin America. It is likely to commence exports in November or December this year.
“On annual basis, HMIL is looking at domestic volumes of 50,000-60,000 units and export volumes of 60,000-80,000 units for new Verna,” he said.
Replying to a question on hybrids, Koo pointed out that the company will not look at launching any mild hybrid models due to withdrawal of government incentives.
In early 2017, the company said it will introduce new technologies like mild and full hybrid models as part of its 2020 new launches.
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