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K. Giriprakash

Bangalore , Oct. 7

ACCENT CRDi, the new-gen diesel model of Hyundai, is turning out to be a huge success for the country's second largest carmaker — but at the cost of other variants of the same model.

Within a year of its launch, Accent CRDi (common rail direct injection) has notched up share of nearly 25 per cent among all of Accent's variants. Accent currently has six models including 1.5 CRDi and 1.6 Viva between the price band of Rs 5.5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh. The 1.6 Viva, which is the petrol version of Accent and was considered the car for the new generation, has a mere 10 per cent share while the CRDi-powered Accent has within a year of its launch posted sales of around 25 per cent.

The introduction of the CRDi model has also nearly doubled Accent's sales from the previous first-half of the fiscal from around 9,600 units to around 16,600 units, sources in the company told Business Line. The CRDi-fitted Accent gives as much as 16 km per litre compared with 8 to 9 km per litre for petrol-driven Accent.

CRDi, which has been sourced from the US-based Detroit Diesels, is extremely popular in the US and Europe because of its higher fuel efficiency and improvement in drive quality and is far quieter than other conventional diesel engines. Based on direct injection technology, the CRDi engine has `rails' which injects pressurised fuel directly into the engine which significantly improves engine efficiency and reduces noise and vibrations. A conventional diesel engine transfers most of the vibrations it causes to the body of the car.

It also electronically controls the engine pressure, fuel quantity and injection timing to give better fuel efficiency and at the same time reduces nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions, thereby making it extremely environment friendly.

Hyundai Motor India is the second largest carmaker in India. During September 2003, the company registered a 53 per cent growth in sales compared with the same period last year. During the first nine months of 2003, Hyundai sold over 1.09 lakh units compared with the full year sales of 1.11 lakh during 2002.

During September 2003, a total of 11,004 cars were sold compared with 10,053 cars in September 2002.

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