Europe, US recession may hit Hyundai car exports this fiscal

Hyundai India expects to sell fewer cars overseas this fiscal because of the continuing recession in Europe and the US.

The country's largest exporter of passenger cars has also launched a new marketing strategy for deeper penetration into the rural markets.

During the last fiscal, Hyundai exported 2.42 lakh cars. “We plan to export less this fiscal though we can't right now say how much less it will be,” Hyundai India board member and Director, Marketing & Sales, Mr Arvind Saxena, told Business Line .

Hyundai sold 6.15 lakh cars last fiscal, giving it a share of 19.1 per cent among all passenger car makers. Mr Saxena said the company's two plants in Chennai can manufacture up to 6.7 lakh cars per year and hence there was no immediate need for a third plant.

Rural focus

He said Hyundai wants to explore newer markets in rural India. Therefore, as part of this initiative, it had asked its dealers in major cities to identify five places in rural areas which have a good potential for selling its models.

These five places were then grouped into three major zones (called stage one, two and three).

A consultant was posted in towns where there was potential to sell two or three cars a month. For towns where five or six cars could be sold, a 15,000-sq-ft showroom was set up and a two-member team was posted there.

For towns which have the potential to sell more cars, a 15,000-sq-ft showroom and a workshop for servicing the vehicles were set up, and a bigger team was posted.

Mr Saxena said a total of 1,000 such locations have been identified. Of these, 170 locations fall in stage two and three. This number is expected to double by the end of this year, thereby upgrading stage one and two to their next level, as far as sales go.

“This will help us to create a larger footprint in the country,” Mr Saxena pointed out.

COMMENT NOW