Hyundai India public car to take on Nano

Targeting consumers in the developing nations, car maker Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) has lined up plans to build a 'public car'.

The car maker, one of India's fastest growing automobile manufacturer and car exporter, has said that it is planning to come out with a public car that is suitable for India as well as other eastern countries. It expected that the car would be rolled out of its assembly line by 2011.

Analysts believe that the new vehicle in the small car segment will most likely be brought out to compete with Tata Motors’ Nano. Hyundai Motor India Ltd already has a sizeable presence across all car segments, with about 34 variants of passenger cars. It has the Santro in the B segment, Getz Prime, i10 in the B+ segment, the Accent and Verna in the C segment, the Elantra in the D segment, the Sonata Embera in the E segment, and the Tucson in the SUV segment.

As part of expanding its dealer network, the company announced a new outlet in Jaipur. The new dealership is spread across a built-up area of 2596 sq metres and provides facilities of sales, service, and spares. The showroom will also have the used car showroom Hyundai Advantage. Jaipur was chosen because HMIL believes that Rajasthan is an important market for Hyundai and the opening up of the 10th dealership in Rajasthan proves its keenness to increase its presence in the state in order to meet the growing demand for Hyundai cars there. The company has said it was looking at a growth of around 30 per cent this year in India and it expects the newly launched i10 to drive sales.

HMIL, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of South Korea's Hyundai Motor Company, has as many as 230 dealers and the figure is expected to go up to 300 by end of year 2008.