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Hyundai Motor India on Tuesday unveiled its all-new Santro, a family car, sporting 23 new age features with AMT and CNG options. It is bigger, wider, roomier than the earlier version, which played a critical role in Hyundai becoming India’s second largest car maker, was discontinued four years ago.
Price of the car will be disclosed but industry analysts expect it to be in the range of ₹3.7 lakh to ₹4.5 lakh. It promises a mileage of 20 km per litre.
Prospective buyers can pre-book the car between October 10 and 22 with ₹11,100 as a booking amount for the first 50,000 customers. Bookings should be done only online.
Nearly 67 per cent of 5 lakh respondents to the online campaign ‘Hyundai Naamkaran’ had chosen Santro as the name to the new car, which was code named AH2 earlier.
New features
“The new Santro is a family car and has been developed with modern stylish tallboy design, The company has spent more than $100 million in development of the new Santro in the past three years,” YK Koo, Managing Director, Hyundai Motor India, said at the company’s factory near Chennai during the unveiling of the car.
The all-new hatchback is powered by 4-cylinder 1.1-litre petrol engine and comes with some first-in-segment features such as rear AC vents, touch screen audio video systems, etc. Also, it comes with safety features including airbags.
The car will also offer indigenously developed Smart AMT technology. “This AMT is the first OE-developed AMT in India and its fuel efficiency will be as good as a manual version,” said Koo.
The company expects a little less than a third of sales to come from AMT variants in new Santro’s volumes, which is pegged at 8,000-10,000 a month.
“We expect strong sales for AMT variant of new Santro in cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore where we expect 40-50 per cent share of AMT variants in Santro’s sales,” he added.
The new car will also come in CNG variant, which will incorporate factory-fitted CNG kit including 60-litre tank.
With new Santro, the company fills the gap in the compact car category. It is positioned in the mid-compact segment between Eon (entry compact) and Grandi10 (high end compact). The compact expects to garner about a fourth of the market share in the mid-compact segment, which includes models such as Tata Tiago and Maruti Celerio, where monthly volumes are pegged at 30,000 units now.
Hyundai also plans to export India-built new Santro and initial annual export volumes are pegged at 20,000-30,000 units.
The formal launch or the world premiere of the new Santro will happen on October 23 at New Delhi.
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