Thursday April 15, 4:21 PM
Hyundai India sees 04/05 sales up 37 pct
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the country's second-largest carmaker, expects its unit sales to jump 37 percent this fiscal year on the back of surging domestic and export demand, a top company official said on Thursday.
The automaker, wholly owned by South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co, has been in India since October 1998 and makes the Santro hatchback, the Accent and Sonata sedans at its car plant on the outskirts of Madras. Jae Il Kim, Hyundai India's managing director, told reporters at a news conference to launch the Elantra family sedan the company expected to sell 235,000 vehicles in fiscal year 2004/05 (April-March), including exports of 70,000 units.
In the past fiscal year, Hyundai India's domestic sales rose 25.4 percent to 129,790 units while exports more than quadrupled to 42,113 as it turned India into an export hub for small cars. Total sales jumped 53 percent to 171,903 vehicles.
"On the conservative side, we expect the Indian car market to grow at about eight percent this year but it could be even higher at nine or 10 percent," Kim said.
India's domestic car sales have surged 31 percent in the past year to March 31, after being nearly flat in three previous years, to about 700,000 units. Sales have been fuelled by a tax cut 13 months ago that made them about five percent cheaper and interest rates near three decade lows.
Hyundai introduced the Elantra family sedan on Thursday powered by a 1.8 litre petrol engine and a 2.0 litre CRDi diesel powertrain to compete with the Toyota Corolla, the Skoda Octavia and the Chevrolet Optra in the domestic market.
Sandwiched between the Accent and the Sonata, Elantra's low-end version carries an ex-showroom price of 869,000 rupees ($19,750) while the top-end version is priced at 1,049,000. It will be assembled in India with a 40 percent local parts content.
Hyundai expects to sell 8,000 Elantras in 2004/05 and forecast the 16,000 units-a-year executive car segment, where the Elantra is positioned, to expand by 25 percent this year.
Kim said Hyundai will increase the price of the Accent by about three percent in a few days and will follow that up with a price increase of the Santro a little later. Quelle: yahoo India News |