HYUNDAI READYING BATTLE AGAINT TATA NANO
Call it a micro battle of mega proportions. The latest entrant in the low-cost mini game is the Korean major Hyundai. The company will develop its low-cost car in India with critical support—in terms of design and technical analysis—from its research facility in Hyderabad.
The new small car will help Hyundai take on Tata Nano and micro-car offerings from other global companies like GM, Toyota, Renault-Bajaj, Fiat and Volkswagen.
Hyundai Motor India MD and CEO HS Lheem told ET: “We are serious about the micro-car market and from April this year we have undertaken a massive feasibility study to understand the Indian customers’ mind—driving conditions, styling cues and technical specs—for the proposed small car.
The new small car will help Hyundai take on Tata Nano and micro-car offerings from other global companies like GM, Toyota, Renault-Bajaj, Fiat and Volkswagen.
Hyundai Motor India MD and CEO HS Lheem told ET: “We are serious about the micro-car market and from April this year we have undertaken a massive feasibility study to understand the Indian customers’ mind—driving conditions, styling cues and technical specs—for the proposed small car.
We are planning a petrol car which will be a notch above the Nano segment. It will be price-competitive and exclusively target the Indian market, but may be followed by a global launch later. By the time this car will be launched in India, the demand for small cars will double to about 2-million units per year.”
Hyundai has decided to make India its sole small car manufacturing hub and shifted its small car R&D to its Hyderabad centre, beefing up its operations in the process. Work on the new car project has started and initial computer-aided designing and technical analysis is already on.
The final product, which is two-three years away, will be jointly researched and developed by the Hyderabad centre and Hyundai’s global R&D headquarters at Ulsan in Korea.
“All R&D on the small car will be done in India which will also be the sole manufacturing hub. We have already started the initial designing of the micro car on computer, which is directly linked to our super computers in Ulsan.
Though the car is primarily for India, it will also meet the demand of other emerging markets. We will gauge the response to Nano and will develop the product accordingly to set the next aspiration level,” Mr Lheem said.
The car is expected to be much cheaper than Santro (Rs 2.65 lakh ex-showroom Delhi) and will be priced around $4,000-5,000 (Rs 1,80,000 to Rs 2,25,000).
The company is increasing its R&D headcount four fold for the small car project to 800 engineers and researchers from the current 200. Besides developing cars from scratch, the facility will also research new technologies in powertrain and alternative fuels.
Hyundai, which is the largest exporter of cars from India, would also start exporting engines from the Chennai plant next year. “We will start exporting engines from next year, mainly to our Korean partner Kia Motors.
A certain portion of that supply will also go to Malaysian and other Asian markets,” Mr Lheem said. The company has started its 2.5-lakh engine and transmission per year facility in Chennai, with a $250-million investment.
Hyundai has decided to make India its sole small car manufacturing hub and shifted its small car R&D to its Hyderabad centre, beefing up its operations in the process. Work on the new car project has started and initial computer-aided designing and technical analysis is already on.
The final product, which is two-three years away, will be jointly researched and developed by the Hyderabad centre and Hyundai’s global R&D headquarters at Ulsan in Korea.
“All R&D on the small car will be done in India which will also be the sole manufacturing hub. We have already started the initial designing of the micro car on computer, which is directly linked to our super computers in Ulsan.
Though the car is primarily for India, it will also meet the demand of other emerging markets. We will gauge the response to Nano and will develop the product accordingly to set the next aspiration level,” Mr Lheem said.
The car is expected to be much cheaper than Santro (Rs 2.65 lakh ex-showroom Delhi) and will be priced around $4,000-5,000 (Rs 1,80,000 to Rs 2,25,000).
The company is increasing its R&D headcount four fold for the small car project to 800 engineers and researchers from the current 200. Besides developing cars from scratch, the facility will also research new technologies in powertrain and alternative fuels.
Hyundai, which is the largest exporter of cars from India, would also start exporting engines from the Chennai plant next year. “We will start exporting engines from next year, mainly to our Korean partner Kia Motors.
A certain portion of that supply will also go to Malaysian and other Asian markets,” Mr Lheem said. The company has started its 2.5-lakh engine and transmission per year facility in Chennai, with a $250-million investment.
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