Hyundai Motor India Limited is taking the adage -- what cannot be measured cannot be controlled -- very seriously. In a move to control costs, it is implementing an innovative plan where the car-marker has incentivised every small idea to reduce the weight of the car it makes by offering Rs 100 for every gram saved in weight.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd on Wednesday launched a new automatic variant of its diesel powered luxury sedan Sonata Embera CRDi, priced at Rs 15,71,656 (ex-showroom Delhi).
Michael Boneham, president, Ford India, said the small car would be engineered for Indian conditions and that the company was keeping options open for both petrol and diesel variants. Ford's mall car will mark its entry into the mainstream segment, popularly known as the B segment cars in India, which accounts for a little over 70 per cent of the 1.3 million India car market.
The LPG variant will be priced Rs 21,500 more than the existing petrol model. The ex-showroom Delhi price for Santro eco (GL) is Rs 354,294 and Santro eco (GLS) is Rs 373,357.
The company sold 62,515 vehicles in December 2007 which includes 4,114 units of exports
Hyundai Motor India will be raising prices of its cars, including the popular Santro, by up to Rs 15,000.
Hyundai Motor India reported 16.41 per cent growth in its total sales in September at 53,804 units, the highest ever monthly sales since the company first rolled out its car in India 11 years ago.
Hyundai Motor India, the country's second-largest passenger car manufacturer, may introduce more luxury cars in India, president Ashok Jha told Business Standard at the launch of the compact car, the i10, in Pune.
Hyundai Motors India Ltd, the second-largest car manufacturer in the country, has announced a special scheme targeted at women buyers across India offering attractive loan packages.
The export of the cars would commence next year, M Inderjith, vice-president (productions), Hyundai Motor India Ltd, said speaking at the launch of 'i10' in Coimbatore on Monday night. i10 recently made its world debut in New Delhi. India would be the sole production and export hub of the car.
Besieged by rising steel prices, the domestic passenger car manufacturers are gearing up to raise prices again. Barely a month ago, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Honda Siel had effected price increases of Rs 6,000 to Rs 30,000 across models.
International automakers have supported the Hyundai Motor's demand for a two-year notice period before any changes are made by the Indian government with regard to excise or custom duties for the auto sector.
Hyundai Motor India Limited head H S Lheem will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday to discuss issues concerning HMIL, which is the single largest Korean investor in India
"We plan to launch the new 'i10' model with 1.2L petrol engine in the next two months. It will be powerful by an additional 15 bhp against the existing one, which comes in a 1.1L engine," a Hyundai Motor India Limited's spokesperson told reporters on the sidelines of induction ceremony of third batch of students traffic volunteers in New Delhi.
The global semiconductor shortage hit passenger vehicle sales in September, with major manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Mahindra & Mahindra reporting a decline in sales on Friday. Kia India and Honda Cars also reported a dip in wholesales last month as compared with the year-ago period. Carmakers like Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Nissan and Skoda, however, reported an increase in passenger vehicle dispatches last month despite supply chain issues.
Hyundai Motor India on Thursday said it has crossed the half-a-million mark in cumulative exports, with the loading of its latest product the i10 at the Chennai port. The company reached the first milestone of exporting 1,00,000 cars in four years and 10 months that ended in October 2004. In October 2005, it exported its 200,000th car, followed by 300,000th car and 400,000th car in October 2006 and August 2007 respectively. Hyundai India is targeting 530,000 units this year.
"HMIL started accepting export orders for the i10 from December, 2007, and received 60,000 orders from the overseas market creating a record of clocking the fastest 50,000 units of export orders in just three months," the company said. The company would ship around 26,000 units by March 2008, and subsequently it would be exported to all the major markets across the globe covering over 90 countries by the end of the year, it added.
The CNG Santro (XK, non-AC) has been priced at Rs 325,361 (ex-showroom, New Delhi). Prices of its other variants of CNG Santro were not immediately known.
High real estate prices make the South Korean car maker look at Chennai and Hyderabad.
Market leader Maruti registers a growth of 19% in 2007.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd plans to set up a research and development centre in Hyderabad.
Similar to its predecessor i-10, the i-20 will be manufactured exclusively in India and exported to other countries. The i-20 model, which will come in many variants, is expected to be priced anywhere between Rs 5-6 lakh. The i-20 is likely to be equipped with an automatic gear box to facilitate convenient driving.
Car companies have responded to the high interest rates on consumer loans by offering attractive packages to woo back customers.
The Tatas sold over 14,466 Indica cars, which was slightly lower than the sales of 14,592 units of the Santro hatchback in January.
Hyundai Motor India Limited plans to set up its own facility at the Chennai port for parking its vehicles for shipment, a top Hyundai official said on Wednesday.
Hyundai Motors India hopes to export over 250,000 cars next year from India, twice this year's number. Yet, Managing Director H S Lheem said this performance will not be without its problems. In fact, ebullient exports may end up denting the company's bottom line.
HMIL president Ashok Jha did not rule out the possibility of research on developing low-end cars priced between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh. The R&D unit will come up with an investment of $40 million over 15 acres and will be operational in a year's time.
Terming as "impossible" the Rs 1 lakh car that Tatas propose to roll out, particularly on safety aspects, Hyundai on Friday said it would like to bring an entry level car with a minimum price tag of $3000 like the one Renault is planning.
In what signals an emerging battle among small car manufacturers, Hyundai Motors India Ltd has asked the country's apex auto association to act against moves by "some pressure groups" to change the definition of a small car.
Since Hyundai has developed its 'small cars' based on the current definition of 4,000 mm, it could lose out on excise benefit if the length were to be altered to 3,800 mm as per the auto policy.
Hyundai Motors India, the country's second-largest car firm, launched the diesel version of its top-end sedan Sonata Embera tagged at an introductory price of Rs 14.75 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
The share of eastern India in the overall sales volume is also expected to grow from the existing 9 per cent to 15 per cent by 2010. At present, Hyundai sells around 1,000 units per month in eastern India.
Hyundai may join the battle in the sub-compact car market in India after Tata Motors introduces its Rs 100,000 car.
'i10', the company's latest offering to the market, would now be available between Rs 3.26 lakh and Rs 5.25 lakh, cheaper by up to Rs 18,381. HMIL also said its premium hatchback 'Getz' would be cheaper by Rs 13,413-Rs 19,422 across different variants.
However, the company's cumulative sales (including exports) in November were up by 48.89 per cent to 43,105 units compared with 28,950 units in the year-ago period, HMIL said. Its exports for the month rose by nearly three-fold to 28,500 units, the same stood at 9,898 units during the same month in 2007.
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission on Thursday advised auto giants Maruti and Hyundai not to target each other in advertisements and asked Maruti to file its reply to a complaint filed by its rival carmaker.
Hyundai Vice President (sales and marketing) Arvind Saxena told reporters at the launch of Verna in Kolkata on Wednesday that the second plant, coming up near the existing one near Chennai, would go on stream in 2008.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd, is floating its own advertising agency, Innocean, in India.
The two petrol models of the Logan are priced between Rs 428,000 and Rs 644,000, while its diesel model's price range is Rs 547,000 to Rs 651,000. The range overlaps the pricing of the premium hatchbacks as well as of mid-size cars.
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