Hyundai Expects SUVs to Account 65 Percent Sales in India in 2024

News Highlights

• The company got 60 percent of its overall sales from SUVs in 2023.
• Hyundai bought the Talegaon manufacturing facility from General Motors last year.

Hyundai Motor India is hoping that its SUVs will contribute to increasing the company’s overall volumes in India in 2024. The COO of Hyundai Motor India, Tarun Garg, expects Hyundai’s SUVs, including the Alcazar, Venue, Exter, Creta, etc., to contribute 65 percent of total sales for the company in the Indian market this year. During the launch event of the 2024 Hyundai Creta facelift, he stated that by the end of this decade, the automaker expects to have 20 percent of its total sales come from EVs.

The company got 60 percent of its overall sales from SUVs in 2023. The demand for sports utility vehicles has been high lately, and this played a crucial role for the firm to shift its complete focus to the SUV segment. The same pace is likely to continue this year as well, said Garg.

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He further added, "Last year, SUVs accounted for 60 percent of our total volumes. This year, we expect it to touch the 65 percent mark." Garg further noted that in the year 2015, the utility vehicle segment accounted for just 13 percent of the total domestic PV sales in the country. The percentage has hiked to 49 percent in 2023 due to the growing demand for SUVs across the nation.

Hyundai Motor had already bought the Talegaon manufacturing facility from General Motors last year. The manufacturer is getting ready to invest INR 7,000 crore in the new production facility. The deputy chief minister in Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, claimed that this investment will help run the factory. This is going to be Hyundai Motor’s second construction facility in the country. The company already has a manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu. At the World Economic Forum, the company will also sign a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Maharashtra government in Davos.

By setting up a new facility, Hyundai is expecting to increase its yearly production capacity. Garg said that this production strategy of setting up a new plant will play an important role in the company’s expectations to produce 10 lakh units every year. "It's a very important step for us to reach the 10-lakh production capacity."

As of now, Hyundai has 8.25 lakh units of yearly production capacity at its facility in Tamil Nadu. The company expects EVs to account for 30 percent of its overall sales by 2030. Tarun Garg reportedly said, "We believe that the industry's EV penetration will be 20 percent, and we would like Hyundai to be in line with that. We have been working on setting up the entire ecosystem, including localization of the battery packs, in order to bring down the battery and overall costs.” The electric vehicles scheduled to be launched in 2025 will be retailed from Hyundai’s Chennai facility.