homeauto NewsSUVs market share in India to grow up to 50% in 2023, says Hyundai India COO Tarun Garg
SUVs market share in India to grow up to 50% in 2023, says Hyundai India COO Tarun Garg
Tarun Garg, newly appointed Chief Operating Officer at Hyundai India, in conversation with CNBCTV18, said, “2022 was a great year for us and that was primarily because you know we were able to spot the customer trends, the movement towards SUVs.”
Hyundai Motor India Ltd. reported its best-ever annual sales in 2022, an 18.2 percent increase compared to 2021. The company sold 57,852 vehicles in December 2022 and clocked its best-ever annual sales with 5,52,511 lakh units sold in the entire year. Interestingly, this was also the company's highest-ever domestic sales since its inception.
Tarun Garg, the newly appointed Chief Operating Officer at Hyundai India, in conversation with CNBCTV18, said that the year 2022 was great for the company and that was primarily because it was able to spot the customer trends, the movement towards SUVs.
SUVs propelled growth in 2022
The said growth for the South Korean company was propelled by its sports utility vehicles (SUVs), which contributed around 53 percent share to Hyundai’s overall sales.
Garg added, “Tucson, our flagship SUV, also saw a very good response. You know you were selling about 1000 Tucson a year and now we're looking at 5000-6000. So the whole paradigm is shifting and as far as 2023 is concerned, we saw a lot of positives going. We can clearly see that the Indian economy is much more resilient and the tax collections are high, the stock market is doing well, the generally positive sentiment.”
“There are challenges of course. We don't know what's going to happen to this new COVID in China, of course, the global economy is showing signs of inflation. So there are challenges as well. But I think momentum is good enough and we should hope for a good year,” said the Hyundai COO, adding that in the last 2-3 years he’s learned that to take growth month by month, and the company will end up better than what we anticipated.
Impact of SUV’s rising preference in Industry
Garg also explained the impact of the rise in consumer preference for the SUV segment for Hyundai as well as in the industry as well. He stated that in 2022, “As far as industry is concerned, SUV contributed 42 percent to the overall industry, whereas for Hyundai the number was 53. We believe that there is a lot more upside still to it and we at Hyundai probably are looking at somewhere between 55 to 60 percent of SUVs in the calendar year 2023. And I believe that even industry would somewhere be between 45-50 percent.”
“This surge towards SUVs will continue primarily because of customers really really liking for the design, for the technology, for the fuel options, petrol, diesel, turbo. So all these things are really going for SUVs.”
Hyundai’s launch plans for 2023
Garg also gave a sense of the company’s upcoming product plans and launches for this year and said, “Hyundai has always been at the forefront of launching products. Even in the last three years which were plagued by COVID, we launched more than 10 products.”
Speaking about Hyundai’s upcoming electric car Ioniq 5, Garg said, “We are very, very excited because it
Hyundai recently showcased its new flagship electric vehicle (EV) at the Gateway of India in Mumbai and revealed that it would be assembled locally. “Beyond Ioniq 5, there would be more models,” Garg said without revealing the more details.
(Edited by : C H Unnikrishnan)
First Published: Jan 4, 2023 5:26 PM IST
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