Hyundai was quick to get the i20 in India but after that they went in the hiding. With almost no new major car launch from the company in the past 12 months, Hyundai is loosing steam (or so we believe). Now the company has decided to launch at least one new model in the country every year. Along with new models, the Korean automaker also intends to increase its dealership and tap the vast rural market. With a capacity to produce 6,00,000 cars per annum from its two manufacturing facilities in Chennai, the company is finding it hard to produce new models in the country.
The potential cars to be launched in the near future include the i10 diesel (engines will be sourced from South Korea), Santa Fe, Sonata YF, fully refurbished i20 and i10 models. However the Hyundai need to make special effort to ensure the Sonata (one of the largest selling vehicles in the U.S.) is not another disaster story. Brand building along with effective advertisement might do the trick but simply not providing dealers with test drive vehicles won’t help one bit. Atleast it hasn’t with the current Sonata which sells less than even a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
