Jaipur, Jan 25 (IANS) Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL), one of India’s fastest growing automobile manufacturer and car exporter, is planning to come out with a “public car” for developing countries.
“We are planning to come out with a public car that is suitable for India as well as other eastern countries,” H.S. Lheem, HMIL managing director, said.
Refusing to divulge further details, he said it usually takes three years to bring out a new car. The new vehicle in the small car segment will presumably be brought out to compete with the Nano, Tata Motors’ “People’s Car”.
HMIL markets 34 variants of passenger cars across segments. The Santro in the B segment, Getz Prime, i10 in the B+ segment, the Accent and Verna in the C segment, the Elantra in the D segment, the Sonata Embera in the E segment, and the Tucson in the SUV segment.
Lheem was speaking to newspersons at the inauguration of a new dealership of the company here Friday.
The new dealership is spread across a built-up area of 2596 sq metres and provides facilities of sales, service and spares. The showroom will also have the used car showroom Hyundai Advantage.
Lheem said: “Rajasthan is an important market for Hyundai and the opening up of the 10th dealership in Rajasthan proves our keenness to increase our presence in the state in order to meet the growing demand for Hyundai cars here.
“The state-of-the-art showroom and workshop facilities at Morani Hyundai will help HMIL provide immediate and efficient services to our valued customers in the city.”
Hyundai Motor India, a wholly owned subsidiary of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company, has 230 dealers and the figure is expected to go up to 300 by end of 2008.
“We are looking at a growth of around 30 percent in this year nationally primarily on account of the launch of our new car i10,” said Arvind Saxena, HMIL’s senior vice-president (marketing and sales).