HMIL president AP Gandhi said, "The company hopes to launch Sonata sometime in July this year. We need a lead time of three to four months after the auto policy to bring out the product." It is now expected that the auto policy would be announced around the time of the budget in the end of February.

He, however, said that the HMIL's confidence in Sonata was so much that meeting the 1,000 target would not be difficult. The exact pricing (between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 14 lakh) and extent of indigenisation would be firmed up only after the excise and import duty structures are announced in the budget, he added.

The slowdown in the car sales is apparent in HMIL's target, especially for Accent. The company, in 2000, had sold same number of Accents which it had set for itself as target for 2001. "The Accent segment grew at a phenomenal pace last year and it will not be possible to improve upon it as the overall market is turning sluggish.

We will be happy to maintain Accent sales at last year's level," Mr Gandhi said. In addition, scope for Accent exports from India was not as high as Santro because the parent company is also exporting the bigger car.

HMIL has also preferred not to set any target for exports this year as the economies which were importing the cars are unstable. HMIL exported CBUs to countries such as Algeria, Indonesia, Morocco apart from Saarc nations like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He said that HMIL was continuously working towards enlarging its export base so that the volumes could grow. Mauritius would be one market which would soon see `made in India' HMIL cars on its roads. HMIL had put through a hike in the domestic prices to pass on some of the increase in input costs and depreciation in the value of rupee. Santro prices were increased by Rs 7,000, while Accent prices went up by Rs 14,000.