Aiming for leadership position in the sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment with its new model, Creta, to be launched on July 21, Hyundai Motor India on Saturday offered a global preview of the much-awaited vehicle in Chennai.
Hyundai has invested R1,000 crore on the development of the five-seater model, expected to be priced between R8 and R12 lakh in the domestic market, and which will compete with the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra, Renault, Nissan, Ford and Tata Motors in the volume segment of SUVs.
“The SUV segment was growing since 2013 at an annual rate of 25%, but it has declined in the January-May period by about 6%. With Creta, we are confident of not only bringing volume to Hyundai, but also turning around the segment,” HMIL senior vice-president (sales and marketing) Rakesh Srivastava told reporters at the preview.
“With the i20 Active at the entry level and Santa Fe at the premium level, the launch of Creta will complete our SUV offerings and we hope to eventually gain leadership position in the Indian SUV segment,” he added.
The SUV will compete with the offerings, including Ford Ecosport, Renault Duster, Nissan Terrano and Mahindra Scorpio, Mahindra XUV500 and Tata Safari Storme, which are in a price range of R6.75 lakh to R15.99 lakh.
The Creta has been designed and developed in Korea, while HMIL engineers in Hyderabad and Chennai helped to customise it for the Indian conditions, Srivastava said.
HMIL said the global rollout of Creta will start from India with its launch on July 21 followed soon after by sales in other international markets. The name Creta would be used for all the global markets. On exports, Srivastava said Creta would be exported, but India will be the first priority.
Creta will be available in eight variants—four each in diesel and petrol. The petrol variant will come with a 1.6 litre dual VTVT engine and the diesel variant will come with U2 1.4CRDi and U2 1.6 CRDi VGT engine. Creta will be the first vehicle to have automatic transmission technology in the above-4-metre SUV segment.
Bo Shin Seo, managing director and CEO, Hyundai Motor India, told FE, “ The company is expecting to sell over 5,000 units per month initially,” adding, “Creta will be the most awaited and aspirational SUV of the year and would be a revolutionary product in the Hyundai portfolio.” To a specific question about achieving the five lakh domestic sales mark with the launch of Creta, Srivastava said Hyundai’s internal sales target is to sell 4.65 lakh vehicles in the domestic market. However, based on the demand, the company has the capacity to manufacture more vehicles. The production capacity in the Chennai plant can be expanded to seven lakh units per annum.
For Updates Check Automobile News; follow us on Facebook and Twitter
