The country's second largest passenger car maker, Hyundai Motor India is aiming to become the leader of the compact car segment by 2020. In its endeavour to overtake Maruti Suzuki, which presently rules the passenger car segment, Hyundai will be launching new cars and adopting aggressive marketing strategies.
Industry experts feel that this plan is completely justified and Hyundai's target can be considered plausible. Statistics show that more than half of the passenger cars sold in the financial year 2012-2013 were compact cars. Of the compact cars sold in FY13, Hyundai accounted for 22% sales, while Maruti Suzuki was ahead of all with 48% share.
Reports suggest that Hyundai Motor India has a strategic plan in place to become the most-loved brand in India and is hoping to execute it tactfully over the next few years. The company has planned the launch of three compact cars, which will give stiff competition to their Maruti Suzuki counterparts. These launches will be spread over a period of around 18 months and will include cars like Hyundai Grand i10, next-generation i20 and Eon 1 litre. While Grand i10 will compete with Maruti Suzuki Swift, Eon 1 litre is going to rival Alto K10.
Sources have claimed that Hyundai Motor India plans to introduce 1-2 new cars each year. Analysts feel that the future seems bright for the South Korean firm as it is already an established name in other segments, which will provide it the impetus to keep growing its market share in the Indian auto industry. If rumours are to be believed then Hyundai is geared up to introduce as many as 10 new cars by 2017. Hyundai cars that could be hitting Indian roads in the coming 3-4 years include a sub-4 metre sedan, a compact Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and a Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV).
Associate Director at the marketing research and sales forecasting firm, IHS Automotive, Puneet Gupta talked about Hyundai's prospects. He said, “They have proved multiple times, that they can introduce new products in the market and establish them as well. The future product portfolio too looks very exciting. But the challenge will be on the capacity front. Unlike Maruti Suzuki which has clearly laid out capacity expansion plans, Hyundai India is very cautious on that front.”
Hyundai Motor India is evidently taking this plan to overtake Maruti Suzuki quite seriously. However, experts feel that challenging a brand as strong as Maruti Suzuki is a daunting task that will take a long time. Commenting on the same, an automobile consultant said, "Hyundai definitely will eat into Maruti Suzuki's share, but the gap is so large that it is highly unlikely that Hyundai can overtake Maruti.... Not in the next 5-7 years at least."
