India's second largest car manufacturer, Hyundai Motors India Limited (HMIL) has queued up 10-15 car models to be launched in the next five years. In a quest to eclipse Maruti Suzuki India Limited to become India's leading car maker, South Korean auto giant is aggressively investing in India. With this approach, Hyundai aims to gain market share in the highly competitive car market of India.
Hyundai experienced drop in market share from 21 per cent to 18.3 per cent over the period of 12-18 months. In order to revive itself from this loss, the automaker came up with the 'Fluidic' design theme, which presented all the models in a trendy and fresh embodiment. Impressing car enthusiasts with the new theme, Hyundai is expected to incorporate the design theme in various models.
Revealing market sentiment towards Hyundai brands, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, Hyundai India, Arvind Saxena said that the excitement in the market is derived out of only new models and the facelifts. He added that the company is committed to work towards maintaining the positive sentiment. Reacting to the five-year strategy of car maker, Pradeep Saxena, Executive Director at marketing research firm TNS Automotive described novelty as the foremost factor to fuel sales. He also added that value-for-money products would be favoured by consumers.
Hyundai in India wants to capitalise on the strong economic growth platform and low penetration of cars in the passenger market in India. South Korean automaker is continuously experiencing a strong double digit growth over last few years. Going by the strategy of automaker to roll out up to 15 car models in various segments in forthcoming five years will maintain growth rate of 12 to 14 per cent. There is a possibility of Hyundai launching a compact diesel car, as the price differential between diesel and petrol is continuously increasing.
During this five-year journey, Hyundai India faces an uphill task, with rising interest rates, firmer commodity prices and stubbornly high inflation being the main obstacles. These reasons have already slowed down automotive market of India and should be factored in by this Korean giant before strategising for the future.
Along the same lines, other well-known foreign car makers have also lined up many cars in India. Accepting this challenge of Hyundai in India, market leader Maruti Suzuki will introduce 15 to 20 in the next five years. Apart from these, the next five years will see the roll out of 6-8 cars from General Motors, 8 from Ford and 10-15 from Renault-Nissan. By revealing their plans and portfolios for the coming years, car manufacturers in India are set to change this sector drastically.
Industry experts are predicting major changes over the years with respect to the five-year strategies of automakers. However, they are positive about shortening of product lifecycles. The South Korean car maker features in almost all car segments, Eon being at bottom end and Santa Fe at the top. The intensified competition will result in the introduction of better products and increase in level of differentiation. New releases by Hyundai are expected to improve the break-up within segments and provide buyers more alternatives within the same price range.
