The price sensitive Indian market has always been on the lookout for cars with impressive fuel efficiency figures and low cost ownership. The first ones to do so has been India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki who has introduced mild hybrid technology in diesel in the Ciaz sedan. Later this year Japanese automaker Honda will be launching the Accord hybrid in the country.
Owing to growing competition, Hyundai Motors, the country’s leading premium car manufacturer and the largest passenger car exporter has revealed its plans to introduce mild hybrid technology in its cars for India in the future. Mr. Y K Koo, Managing Director and CEO, Hyundai Motor India Limited revealed that the company will analyse the Indian market prior to launching any mild hybrid based model in India. The technology is likely to be introduced in the mid-level models first and gradually be offered in higher models.
Hyundai has tasted success in the international market with the hybrid/fuel cell vehicles like Sonata hybrid, Sonata Plug-in and the Tucson fuel cell models in the international market. Though these models will not make it to India anytime soon, we can expect to see surprises with the current line up in the future.
As for now, we will have to please ourselves with the fuel efficient petrol and diesel line-up from the Korean automaker in India. The automaker has also revealed that the new Tucson will be introduced during the upcoming festive season in the country, while the Grand i10 facelift is due for launch sometime later in 2017.
