SUVs to drive growth for Hyundai
The South Korean automobile major sees demand for personal mobility gaining momentum after 2nd wave of Covid-19
image for illustrative purpose
Hyundai Motor India expects its SUV range to gain further traction in the domestic market with demand for personal mobility gaining momentum post the second wave of Covid-19, according to a senior company official.
The company, which already leads the SUV space with models like Venue, Creta, Tucson and recently launched Alcazar, is looking to maintain its lead in the segment which is growing with each passing month. "The strong trend towards SUVs continues in the domestic market. The share of SUVs in the overall passenger vehicle segment is increasing with each passing month. In July, the SUV penetration was over 37 per cent and in the January-July period it was around 36 per cent, so the trend is clearly visible," Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) Director-Sales, Marketing, Service Tarun Garg told PTI in an interaction.
He noted that the company has seen its SUV sales go up consistently in the domestic market and now its new offering Alcazar is also helping it shore up additional volumes. "The way things are, it seems that due to this shift towards personal mobility the demand is coming back very strongly post the second wave of the Covid-19 as was witnessed after the first wave." "This time around the demand is coming from both urban and rural areas. After the first wave it was mainly the rural regions which were generating the demand," Garg said.
He said that Alcazar, which was launched in June this year, has been able to generate additional volumes for the company without affecting off take of Creta in the market. "There has hardly been any cannibalisation of Creta sales. So this is important because if we look at the numbers last year for Creta we used to do around 8,000 units per month and SUVs in all used to do around 15,000 units."
"In Q1 this year we have moved to over 12,500 units for Creta and the total SUV sales have gone up to 23,800 units. Further in July, the total SUV sales have crossed the 24,000 units mark," Garg stated. Last month, Creta sales were at around 13,000 units and on top of it Alcazar chipped in with about 3,000 units, he said. "So there has been no cannibalisation so far. So we think Alcazar would be able to bring in new customers to the company fold.
