Despite slowdown in the global markets, the recently launched made in India compact cars, the A-Star from Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) and the i20 from Hyundai Motor India (HMI), are fast catching up the fancy of the Europeans.
In February, while MSI registered a jump of 89.9% in exports at 8,565 units against 4,511 units in the same month last year, HMI posted a growth of 18.3% in exports at 17,039 units last month vis-?-vis 14,401 units in February last year. In fact, Hyundai has already exported 25,000 units of i20 in the last three months. This is 44.6% of the 56,039 units that the company exported in December, January and February. Even the A-Star, launched in India in November and the shipment of which to Europe started in January, has so far contributed 56.8% or around 10,000 units of the total 17,603 cars exported by Maruti in the last three months.
?With a huge surge in oil prices last year, people in developed countries have now started moving towards fuel efficient or small cars and this has led to an increase in demand for smaller cars,? said Vaishali Jajoo, senior auto analyst, Angel Broking.
According to Jajoo, during turbulent times like these, even the cost of ownership matters the most. ?Since smaller cars are more affordable than the sedans and the sport utility vehicles, which had been ruling the roads in global markets before the financial meltdown and high oil prices had set in, people there now prefer smaller cars,? she said. ?The i20, which is the latest model from Hyundai, has been developed to cater to the needs of European markets. This, coupled with a well established dealer network of Hyundai, has helped the company to get volumes,? added Arvind Saxena, senior vice-president, Hyundai Motor India.