Strategic Car in India
According to Hyundai Motor and local media in India on March 17, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) is planning to increase production of its global strategic sports utility vehicle (SUV) model “Creta,” which is being manufactured in India, by 30 percent to 13,000 units a month.
This is to reduce the waiting period of customers to purchase the vehicle and meet a rush of orders from Central and South America. HMIL will allocate 10,000 units out of 13,000 for the Indian market.
HMIL had launched the Creta in India in June last year and sold 1,641 units in the first month. Then, it sold 7,437 units in July. After October, the Creta ranked second in sales, following the Mahindra Bolero. However, it took the lead again in January this year.
According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the Creta sold 6,589 units in January, followed by the Mahindra Bolero with 6,160 units.
It sold 8,196 units in February, recording the highest sales since the release. The figure is up 759 units from 7,437 units in August last year, its prior all-time record. The Creta has been ranked number one in the SUV sector in India for two months in a row from January to February. Its cumulative sales stood at 55,673 units until February since the release.
Hyundai Motor believe that the Creta is popular in the market due to its high quality specification, including 17-inch alloy wheels, LED lamps and touch screen system that are rare in compact SUVs. The Creta was selected as the Indian Car of the Year 2016 last year, beating Honda’s Jazz and Maruti Suzuki’s Baleno.
Korea Automotive Research Institute said Hyundai Motor had a 17.5 percent share in the Indian market with sales of 41,000 units as of February thanks to the popularity of the Creta, taking the second place. The first place went to Maruti Suzuki. As compact SUVs lead the Indian auto market, Hyundai Motor gets a benefit from it.
The Creta is being entirely produced in India. Currently, the model is being supplied to emerging markets, including India, but Hyundai Motor plans to gradually expand its markets.
More than 28,000 units of orders are now backed up from Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and Panama from Latin America and Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia from Middle East, and Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria from Africa.
Meanwhile, the Indian auto market is the sixth largest market in the world in terms of sales at the moment, but it is expected to be the third largest market in the world in 2020, following China and the U.S. From January to November last year, sales in the Indian auto market reached 2.53 million units, up 8.4 percent from a year ago. In terms of growth rates alone, it outpaced the U.S. market with a 5.5 percent increase.