The company, which launched a refreshed version of best-seller Creta I in petrol and diesel Tuesday priced between Rs 10.99-19.99 lakh (ex-showroom), registered 60% of its sales from SUVs in CY2023. Hyundai declined to share any information on whether it plans to introduce an electric version of the Creta in future. To put in context, Honda Cars India which recently forayed into the SUV segment with the Elevate has said it will have ready a full electric vehicles based on the Elevate by 2026.
Tarun Garg, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Hyundai Motor India told ET, there has been a sharp shift in consumer preference away from small cars to SUVs. “We have a full range of products in the segment today right from the Exter to Tucson. We expect the share of SUVs in our total sales will be higher than the industry at about 65%”, Garg informed.
Sales in the midsize SUV segment particularly has been growing on a fast clip, by over 40% to 513,000 units in CY2023. Hyundai Creta – which is pitted against the likes of Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, Toyota Hyryder, Kia Seltos and Honda Elevate – has a share of 31% in this space. The model contributes as much as 26% to sales at the company.
Overall, the share of SUVs in sales of passenger vehicles in the local market has been on a rise growing to 49% in the last calendar year, from 14% in 2015. This has prompted carmakers from Maruti Suzuki to Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) to fine tune their strategies to expand their footprint in the space.
In the broader market, Garg said he expects demand momentum to continue in the local market despite global uncertainties and passenger vehicle sales here to grow in single-digits, on a high base. “The Indian market is resilient and should grow in low single-digits this year. This is good given that we have had two years of record sales”, he said. Sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market grew by 8.2% to breach the four million mark for the first time in CY2023. Hyundai too registered best-ever sales of 602,111 units in this period. Unsoo Kim, Managing Director at Hyundai Motor India said, the company is committed to growing operations in the Indian market. “We recently announced an investment of Rs 6,180 crore. This is in addition to the already announced investment of Rs 20,000 towards capacity expansion, new products and a battery pack assembly plant. Our commitment to India remains unwavering”, Kim said, adding, these investments, chart out “the next decade of the company’s journey in India.”
The company is also gearing up to inaugurate second phase of the company’s corporate headquarters in Gurugram, which Kim said is one amongst certain key strategic expansions planned by HMIL over the next few years.
Separately, Garg said the company will continue to offer diesel as an option to its customers as long as regulations permit. More than 40% of the sales of SUV Creta come in from the fuel option, and the proportion higher in larger models like Alcazar and Tucson. “We feel petrol and CNG are good options for consumers at the entry-level. We are a full range manufacturers and will continue to offer all options to our customers be or gasoline, diesel, CNG or electric”, he said.