Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) is betting big on Venue, a compact SUV which will be launched shortly.
Amid challenges and subdued market sentiment, HMIL expects Venue will not only give the needed impetus to maintain its growth momentum in the domestic market but also help to attain leadership in the overall sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment going forward.
With bookings for Venue starting on Thursday, HMIL is confident that it will sell at least 8,000 units a month that will go up in a few months.
The company hopes that exports, which is expected to begin in a few months after launch, will shore up Venue’s monthly sales further, said sources close to the market developments. Venue is slated for launch on May 21 and is being pitted against market leader Maruti Brezza, Tata’s Nexon, Ford EcoSport and M&M’s XUV 300, among others, in the compact SUV segment. With Venue in place, Hyundai India sets sales target of 7.4 lakh units in 2019, including exports.
The compact SUV segment is growing faster than other segmens in the PV segment and has a potential of 30,000 to 35,000 units a month. Brezza leads the pack with an average monthly sale of 13,000-14,000 units, followed by other models, said Siam sources. The SUV segment holds close to 30% of the overall passenger vehicle sales in India.
HMIL managing director & chief executive SS Kim, while declining to comment on Venue’s sales, said like its popular SUV Creta, Venue would do equally, given the encouraging response from customers. The company has introduced the Hyundai Blue Link in the Indian market for safety and convenience of customers and vehicle management relationship services.
This connected vehicle system uses an embedded telematics to gather vehicle car care information. The system utilises mobile apps to allow the customer to Remote Start, Stop, Lock or Unlock their Hyundai.
“We believe good products always have high customer acceptability. We have optimistic targets for the Venue and our goal is to create a ‘game changer’ SUV,” he said.
According to Kim, the market for compact SUVs continues to grow. The utility vehicle segment has been the fastest growing category in India, with volumes more than doubling to 9.2 lakh units in the past five years. The segment will grow exponentially to 1.5 million units by 2023. “With Creta, we seek to garner the market leadership position in the SUV segment in India. Creta is still commanding good response and has an average monthly sales of over 9,000 units. With Venue in place, we hope to have an average SUV month sales between 17,000 and 19,000 units a month,” he said.
He further said exports had formed a crucial part of the HMIL’s business and being India’s largest exporter since inception, the firm definitely had plans to export this ‘Made in India’ product. “Looking at the demand and market scenario, we will identify export markets for Venue.”
To a query on growth target for 2019, Kim said: “Our present production capacity is 7 lakh and we can further extend it to 7.5 lakh with smart manufacturing processes to meet additional demand. The company hopes to touch this figure, including exports this year.”
HMIL announced the opening of Venue bookings on Thursday. Customers can book with an amount of `21,000 through online as well as dealerships.