If one was to define the parameters of success for a car maker in India, the list would feature things like style, brand value, fuel efficiency and affordability. For a long time now, Maruti Suzuki has been dominating the Indian passenger car market, continuously outdoing rivals by producing iconic vehicles one after the other. However, South Korean auto maker Hyundai is one brand that has posed a challenge to the dominance of Maruti Suzuki. Industry experts have praised cars manufactured by Hyundai for their performance, engine efficiency and suitability to Indian conditions. Analysts and experts have found a lot of similarities between operations of the two car makers.
The biggest reason why Hyundai is able to compete with Maruti Suzuki is because of its wide product portfolio. Like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai also banks heavily on its hatchbacks to drive sales, something that has worked out well for the South Korean auto maker. Industry experts feel that the team of analysts at Hyundai has done a good job in mapping the demands of the Indian customers. Notably, every vehicle launched by Maruti Suzuki is rivalled by a product from Hyundai. Starting from lowest-costing car, the Alto 800 from Maruti Suzuki competes with the Hyundai Eon. The Alto 800 has performed exceptionally well in India, raking up high sales numbers. Other cars from Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai that compete with each other are WagonR-i10, Santro Xing-Ritz and Swift-i20.
Maruti Suzuki enjoys a number of advantages over the Hyundai as a brand. The auto maker has been operating in the country for over three decades, which is quite a long time. Hyundai, on the other hand, joined the Indian auto industry in the 1990s and since then, has grown by leaps and bounds. Maruti Suzuki has a deep understanding of the minds of Indian customers as it is a company based in the country. Also, the kind of expectation level created by Maruti Suzuki is unprecedented and something that the firm lives up to almost all the time. Apart from this, the company has a terrific after-sales service network, which is present all over the country. Hyundai, on its part, has made an effort to build an image for itself through numerous advertising and marketing campaigns.
Although Hyundai has grown quite steadily in the Indian car market, it has not been able to match the volumes of Maruti Suzuki. However, it has managed to reduce the margin by quite a bit and its future is looking good. Recently, Maruti Suzuki launched the Stingray hatchback in India, which has received a decent response from critics. Hyundai, not holding back, introduced the Grand i10 in the month of September. These kind of developments symbolise the level of fierce competition that exists between the two brands. And the competition is only going to get stiffer in the future because both auto makers have announced their plans of introducing multiple new models in India. According to reports, Maruti Suzuki is planning to launch diesel variants of WagonR and Alto 800 hatchbacks. Hyundai, not far behind its competitor, is expected to introduce a diesel variant of the Eon hatchback. Also, officials from Hyundai, in the recent past, have made the firm's intentions of overtaking Maruti Suzuki in the passenger car segment. Industry experts feel that it is a near impossible task, given how big the gap between their respective market shares is.
