Despite a slump in demand for passenger cars that resulted in a dip of 1.71% in July, for the first time in over two years, leading passenger car manufacturers like Hyundai Motor India, Toyota Kirloskar Motors?and SkodaAuto India are bullish on the Indian market. While Hyundai is going ahead with expansion of capacity at its plants in Chennai, Toyota and Skoda are maintaining the growth targets of 60% and 20% in 2008, thanks to the new models that the companies have lined up.
Hyundai, which sold 3.30 lakh units in 2007-08, is eyeing sales of 5.3 lakh units and hence going ahead with the increase in production to 6 lakh units. ?Hyundai will commence production in third shift at its plant in Chennai from October in order to achieve the production target of 6 lakh units by next year,? says HS Lheem, MD & CEO, HMIL on the sidelines of the 48th SIAM annual convention 2008. Lheem added that the enhanced capacity is also needed to meet the growing demand of Hyundai vehicles globally. ?The company has a lot of back orders for exports, which accounts for 50% of total sales, and hence it requires ramping up of production,? he said.
Japanese auto major Toyota is also expecting company?s sales in India to go up by 20% in 2008-09 on the back of new launches including the Corolla Altis that will be launched on Friday. ?Last year, we sold 50,000 vehicles in India and this is expected to go up to 60,000 units this year,? Hiroshi Nakagawa, managing director, Toyota Kirloskar Motors said.
Ditto for SkodaAuto India. The company, which is present in India with its recently launched Fabia in the compact car segment, Laura and Octavia in the upper C-segment and Superb in the D-segment, eyes around 60% growth in the domestic market.
?The company is looking at doubling its sales to 20,000 units this year and this will come on the backdrop of new launches and variants that are lined up,? Thomas Kuehl, head (sales and marketing), SkodaAuto India.