India's second largest passenger car manufacturer, Hyundai Motor India Limited is upping its ante to challenge the supremacy of Maruti Suzuki in the Indian car market. Recently, the company unveiled its upcoming Grand i10, which is all set to be soon launched in the Indian car market in September 2013. The car will make its global debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show that is commencing in this September. Since its unveiling, Grand i10 has generated a lot of buzz mainly due to the fact that it shall be slotted in the void left between popular hatchbacks like i10 and i20. This new strategy of Hyundai has been appreciated by industry critics as it could have a favourable effect on the fortunes of the South Korean auto maker in the hatchback segment.
On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki too has followed the footsteps of Hyundai and has launched Stingray between WagonR and Swift to fill in the void left out previously. Grand i10 shares almost the same platform of its donor car i10 and has been redesigned with new attractive features. As far as the current line-up of Hyundai India is concerned, a gap between entry level and premium hatch is existent and with the scheduled launch of Grand i10, the issue has been addressed by Hyundai. Car buyers in India would have preferred a model that would be available in a diesel engine along with respectable features and currently looking at the tide of things, Grand i10 seems to be a perfect answer for them. What seems to be the best part of Grand i10 is its predicted low pricing as compared to i20, which will give an option for potential buyers to choose a car having enough space and features and that too at a affordable price.
In order to offer a low priced diesel car, the company has developed a performance oriented 1.1-litre U2 diesel engine that can produce a impressive peak output of 70 bhp. It is being said that newly developed U2 diesel engine is more efficient and refined as compared to other low configuration diesel engines. After the launch, Grand i10 will become the least priced diesel car of Hyundai that will be on offer in the Indian car market. Apart from it, the petrol variant of Grand i10 shall have the same 1.2-litre Kappa engine that would generate 83 bhp of maximum power.
In terms of price, the car maker has not made any official announcements yet, but it is rumoured that the petrol variant will be offered in a price range from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 7.2 lakh while the diesel version is likely to carry a price tag of Rs. 5.5 lakh (all prices are ex-showroom) for the base model. As seen by Industry experts, the main reason of Hyundai behind launching the Grand i10 in India is to give competition to the newly launched Maruti Suzuki Stingray. In addition, other rivals of Hyundai like Volkswagen and Ford exist in the hatchback segment with their models like Polo and Figo, respectively. The launch of Hyundai Grand i10 is presumed to further stiffen the competition in the hatchback segment.
Hyundai Grand i10 is all set to showcase at the Frankfurt Motor Show after its launch in the Indian market. According to industry sources, Hyundai India might replace the current generation i10 with the new version in the global markets. However, the company is keen to launch Grand i10 in India besides the i10 model with giving due emphasises on the kind of performance it has shown in the Indian car market.
