Light Trucks Could Make Hyundai India’s Good Times Better

MUMBAI – An updated product lineup and up-to-date marketing are solidifying Hyundai’s status as India’s No.2 automaker.

March sales climbed 13.0% year-over-year to 39,325 units while January-March deliveries rose 8.9% to 111,131 for a 21.2% share of the Indian car market, according to WardsAuto data.

Those figures might have been bigger if Hyundai manufactured light trucks in India. The automaker sold just 200 light trucks in March and 479 through the year’s first three months in a market in which SUVs and CUVs constitute 37% of light-vehicle sales.

That will change over the next four to five years, when Hyundai will launch five utility vehicles in several price and performance segments, starting this year with the i20 compact CUV renamed the Active. Next year will see the arrival of the ix25 compact SUV that will try to snatch sales from the Renault Duster and Nissan Teranno (Pathfinder).

Next in line is a multipurpose vehicle codenamed IP in 2017. That segment currently is dominated by the Ford EcoSport, Honda Mobilio, Renault Lodgy and Maruti Ertiga. Due out in 2018 is the Tucson ix35 premium SUV that will compete with Mahindra’s XUV 500. In 2019 or 2020 Hyundai will launch its flagship new-generation Santa Fe CUV.

Hyundai’s 21.2% share of the car market in the year’s first three months was undercut by its dearth of light trucks, which left its share of total light-vehicle sales at 13.7%. The automaker is looking to the new utility vehicles to help increase overall market share at least one percentage poinbt a year to about 20% by 2020.

Each of these new products will incorporate Hyundai’s new concept of Hexa space, which allows flexible arrangements of seats and space and is particularly suited to utility vehicles.

Beyond engineering and new manufacturing techniques, Hyundai is reaching out to younger buyers through social media. With 5.5 million Facebook followers and 17.5 million on the UTtv online-television network, the automaker’s digital presence is the highest in the Indian auto industry and has doubled in the past few months.

With its focus on modern marketing techniques and transitioning from cars to utility vehicles Hyundai has a goal of exceeding 500,000 sales in 2016.