Aided by SUVs, Hyundai Motor India posts highest-ever sales in 2022

Driven by premiumisation of the market, the country’s second-largest passenger vehicles manufacturer, Hyundai Motor India (HMIL), in 2022 posted its highest-ever sales, selling 552,500 units, up 9 per cent from 505,033 units in 2021.

The rise is mainly credited to better performance in the sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment by the company and the industry.

In 2018, SUVs were contributing to 22.4 per cent of the industry, which went up to 25.6 per cent in 2019. The segment’s share went up to 29 per cent in 2020, 38.1 per cent in 2021 and 41.8 per cent in 2022.

“We have reported the highest-ever sales in the history of Hyundai. Before that, 2018 was the highest ever. This number consists of 53.3 per cent SUVs, compared to the industry’s 41.8 per cent for SUVs. Clearly, our SUV strategy is working very well. After Covid, customers have become aspirational and are looking for bigger cars, new design technologies and connectivity,” Tarun Garg, director of sales, marketing and service at HMIL, told Business Standard. 

The company had sold 550,002 vehicles in 2018, which fell to 510,260 in 2019 and 423,642 units in 2020. The shift towards SUVs is happening mainly from the hatchback segment. Hatchbacks contributed to 47.5 per cent in 2018, 46.2 per cent in 2019, 47.1 per cent in 2020, 40 per cent in 2021 and 34.9 per cent in 2022.

In yet another sign of consumers preferring premium vehicles, cars with a price range of more than Rs 10 lakh contributed to 45 per cent of the company’s total sales. This is up from a mere 21 per cent in 2018.

“Customers are becoming more aspirational than functional, leading to a shift from smaller cars to bigger cars. Features have become very important. Around 38 per cent of our total sales are vehicles with sunroof,” Garg said.

He added that though the company will be coming up with hatchbacks, sedans and SUVs in the coming years, there will be more SUVs due to the rise in customer demand.

In 2022, the diesel penetration of HMIL was seen at 26 per cent, coming back to the pre-BS-IV level. In 2019 it was 26 per cent, it came down to 22.8 in 2020 and was 24 per cent in 2021.

“Now, it is back to 26 per cent because more SUVs are sold. Diesel penetration in SUVs is also higher. For Tucson, 72 per cent is diesel; in Alcazar around 75 per cent is diesel and for Creta, it is around 54 per cent,” Garg added.  

According to the company, in all the segments, higher bracket cars are selling more. Its share in the higher bracket increased to 20 per cent in 2022 from 17 per cent in 2021.

For various models, Alcazar’s signature model’s share increased to 44 per cent against 35 per cent last year. For Tucson, it increased to 93 per cent from 91 per cent, in case of Creta to 20 per cent from 19 per cent and for Nios it rose to 6 per cent from 5 per cent.

Garg said that the company is not seeing any immediate impact due to the rise in Covid cases in China and the global financial situation. “On supply-side and semiconductors, too, things are better,” he added.

In the electric vehicle segment, the company will be launching the Ioniq 5 at the Auto Expo this month. On challenges in the EV space, he said low localisation and lack of charging infrastructure are the major roadblocks.