The Hindu Business Line : New compact car from Hyundai by year-end

Kochi, Oct. 17 The new compact car designed by Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), in the passenger car segment, will hit the roads by the end of this year, Mr Arvind Saxena, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, HMIL, said.

Code-named PA

The car code named PA is a five-seater petrol version and will be priced between Santro and Getz.

It will be a new car, which will be first launched in India and exported to the rest of the world later, he told media persons here on Wednesday.

Mr Saxena, who was here in connection with the inauguration of Hyundai’s new dealership at Muvattupuzha, said that “we are closely positioning ourselves in the compact car segment, which is the largest segment in the passenger car market”.

He pointed out that the new compact car would be rolled out from the company’s second plant set up in Chennai.

The second plant will enhance the production capacity to 600,000 units per annum by 2007.

The company has made an investment of $1.3 billion for the plant, he added.

With the opening of the Muvattupuzha dealership, he said the company has 196 operating dealers across the country.

Expanding dealer network

HMIL plans to expand its dealer network to 250 by the end of the year.

Referring to the Kerala market, Mr Saxena said that the company had sold about 10,000 cars in the State last year.

This year, more than 8,000 cars have been sold so far and the figure would touch 12,000 by the end of this year.

Re impact

The appreciation of the rupee has hit HMIL’s exports , he said and sought the Government’s interventionas more than 30 per cent of the company’s production was being exported.

The prices of vehicles could not be increased as it would result in losing the competitive edge.

Hyundai currently exports to over 65 countries, he said.

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