Hyundai i20s exports to Europe begin

Hyundai Motor India has dispatched 2,820 units of the Hyundai i20 for export to Europe. The Hyundai i20s were rolled out from Hyundai’s Sriperumbedur plant, from the Chennai port.

The first consignment of the Hyundai i20s will head for the UK, Germany, Greece, Austria, Croatia, Spain, Belgium, Holland and Hungary. The Hyundai i20 will be available in 1.2 litre, 1.4 litre and 1.6 litre variants, in both petrol and diesel.

Hyundai India had launched the Hyundai i20 at the Paris Motor Show in October 2008.

The company, which had made India its global export hub for compact cars, had kick started the third shift of operations to meet the anticipated demand globally. Hyundai India currently exports to over 95 countries across the world and is targeting 110 countries by 2009. The company had already set a target to sell 1,20,000 units of i20 cars by 2009.

Initially, Hyundai had aimed to export 6000 Hyundai i20s to Europe by October 2008, but the global financial crises led to some cancellations by distributors, and Hyundai decided to lower initial shipment.

With the first batch ready for Europe, initially the company would be shipping about 2,820 cars to Spain. Hyundai would then look to other other European markets.

The new markets that Hyundai is aiming to tap are Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Martinique, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestine, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan. It is expected that the Hyundai i20 has all in it to become a best-seller in the Hyundai’s European range.

Meanwhile, Hyundai hopes to launch the Hyundai i20 variant in India, by early 2009.

Hyundai’s i10 model has been a tremendous success in the Indian market. Hyundai India is working on a diesel version of Hyundai i10 which would be rolled out by 2009.

Hyundai has said that it will also launch a new model smaller than the Hyundai Santro, by 2011.