Hyundai is about to leave you spoilt for choice

To tap into the country’s increasing demand for utility vehicles, the South Korean carmaker would make half a dozen SUVs and crossovers for the local market. Hyundai’s pricing range would be pretty wide – from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 40 lakh – to compete in a segment that accounts for one in four personal-transport vehicles sold in Asia’s no. 3 economy.Once the models are introduced, Hyundai will have the majority of its portfolio as crossovers and SUVs – with options at every 1-lakh-rupee price point. According to several people in the know of Hyundai Motor’s plans, more than 60% of the company’s local product line-up will consist of crossovers and UVs i.e. 8 out 13 vehicles in future.Hyundai has set itself the target of selling a million vehicles per annum by the end of this decade, and the sub-4 metre SUV, Qxi, is critical to achieving the goal.Y K Koo, MD of Hyundai Motor India, told ET that in the immediate future, the company would have built a customer base of over 4 lakh Creta owners who would be looking for an upgrade: Hyundai does not want its current Creta owners to go to competition."SUV is a very important market; we are going to be strengthening our portfolio both below Creta and above Creta,” Y K Koo said. “The Qxi and Micro SUV can address the affordable end of the market. We also want to retain our existing Creta customers who will be looking for an upgrade going ahead , and we will not allow these customers to go to competition (Toyota Fortuner).”He did not share specifics of the future product pipeline.Qxi will be the first to hit the roads in 2019 and a beginning point for the roll out of range of SUVs. The Qxi will take on the likes of Ford EcoSport and Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza. This launch will be followed by new generation i20 Active and Creta.While the current Creta is addressing the compact SUV buyers, after 2020 Hyundai wants to offer a 7-seater version of Creta codenamed SU2i, followed by 5- and 7-seater Tucson (NX4i) to take on the Jeep Compass and Toyota Fortuner. It will also make a Micro SUV to challenge Mahindra KUV. Learning from the past below par performance of Tucson and Santa Fe which were either imported as fully built or in a knocked down form, Hyundai aims to locally manufacture the Tucson twins to compete strongly against Jeep Compass and Toyota Fortuner respectively. The Kona EV will also be assembled in the second half of next year.The utility vehicle segment has been the fastest growing in India, with volumes more than doubling in the last five years to almost 9.2 lakh units per year. The segment is set to see more than 50 new introductions in the coming three to five years from various automakers, expanding the size of the segment to 1.5 million units over the next three-four years, say industry sources.

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