Hyundai Motor India, the country?s second largest passenger car manufacturer, is very close to being the largest contributor to its parent company, Hyundai Motor Corporation (HMC) of Korea, in terms of sales and may soon overtake the company?s subsidiary in China. Currently, Hyundai?s cumulative sales in China between January and September stood at 4,12,399 and India is close behind at 4,05,689 units, a difference of mere 6,710 units.
?India contributes 15-17% to the total sales and revenues of HMC and the growing demand for small cars will help us increase our profits further in 2010,? HW Park, the newly-appointed managing director and CEO of Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) said. Hence, given the pace of growth, India is likely to outpace China by next year.
According to Park, after the scrappage incentives that have been doled out by various countries in the West, demand for small cars have gone up significantly in Europe. ?Despite a strong demand for smaller vehicles in the domestic market, where the small car segment constitutes nearly 78% to the total car sales, there has been an increase in exports from India to Europe and this will help us increase our sales and profit in 2010,? he said. However, while sales in China is entirely to the domestic market, HMC?s Indian subsidiary is currently exporting nearly 50% of its total production to the West after the company decided to develop India as a hub for small cars. The company is expecting to close the calendar year with a sales of 5.6 lakh units, which would be a growth of 13-14%. Meanwhile, HMIL is doing a feasibility study of setting up a diesel plant in India. However, the company ruled out setting up such a plant in the short term.