Hyundai and Chevrolet have been well known brands in the domestic market. Chevrolet's Spark and Hyundai's Santro have been popular entry level cars for their respective carmakers. Both the cars have been strong competitors against Maruti's 800 hatchback that has been ruling the segment for decades and has been recently discontinued. Fresh reports from sources have indicated that Hyundai has been planning on discontinuing its flagship model Santro sometime by end of November this year. The Korean carmaker Hyundai has already sold about 1.36 million units of the Santro in India, whereas it has managed to export about 5,35,000 units since its inception in the country.
Chevrolet brand under Genral Motors flagship has sold about 1,65,000 units of Spark hatchback in the country since its inception. The Chevrolet's Spark took over Daewoo's Matiz fleet in the country. As per reports, Chevrolet's Spark may stop production sometime by December this year.
Sources from the industry have stated that companies have now started believing that these models have reached an end of their life cycle. Looking at the positive aspect, with the end of Santro, hyundai may get more manufacturing capacity to produce more units of its newer models in the market. Gaurav Vangaal, senior analyst, forecasting, at consultancy firm IHS Automotive, said, “The versatility of the Indian market is unmatched, where newly launched vehicles trail off volumes rapidly and a decade-old vehicle churns out strong numbers. The life cycles of all these vehicles are longer than expected due to strong demand forces. If the vehicle proves its worth in the eyes of the consumer, the consumer demand forces the manufacturer to continue with the vehicle.”
Speaking more on the occassion, Subbu, Ex-Hyundai India president, who now works as industry consultatnt said, “It has never happened before (an automaker breaking into profit in seven months) and it will never happen ever again. The management would have been happy with 1,00,000 volumes in five years, whereas Hyundai sold over a million vehicles in seven years.”
Source: ET
