Strategic Car
Hyundai Motor introduced its new i20 in India and Europe simultaneously. The i20 is the strategic model of a small hatchback developed in 2008 to target European and Indian consumers who prefer small vehicles. Hyundai Motors is attempting to turn over the European and Indian markets where it has been weak so far.
Hyundai Motor hosted the new automobile launch show at the Taj Palace Hotel at New Delhi, India on August 11 before the Paris Motor Show, and introduced the new i20 under the local name the Elite i20 for the very first time. As the new i20 has been designed by the Europe Design Center, the appetites of European consumers have been effectively considered. Luxury is emphasized on the inside, and strong and young features are added outside through the hexagonal front grille and black C pillar. For the first time among vehicles in its class, various convenience functions such as a cluster ionizer, 1 GB embedded memory audio, and a premium supervision cluster are included.
Hyundai Motor, through its Europe office, also released the image and specific data of the new i20, under the local name the New Generation i20, which will be manufactured in its Turkey factory. A panorama sunroof, integrated rear camera, and front LEDs were added to meet the demands of European consumers. Hyundai Motor will officially introduce the new i20 at the Paris International Motor Show 2014 in October, and start selling in Europe afterwards.
Whether Hyundai Motor could succeed in Europe and India with the new i20 is a very interesting question in the industry. Although Hyundai Motor showed quite good performance globally during the second quarter by increasing global market share by 0.6 percentage points to 5.7 percent compared to the previous quarter, its businesses are very weak in Europe and India.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, sales of Hyundai Motor in Europe during the first half of this year fell to 219,617 vehicles, 2.4 percent down from the same period last year. Considering the new automobile market in Europe grew 6.2 percent compared to last year, Hyundai Motor did very poorly.
Even though the market share of Hyundai Motor is over 20 percent in India, the launch of the new model is very critical these days, as the new automobile market overall is shrinking due to sluggish consumer sentiment.