Hyundai unveils 5th gen Verna; may abandon hybrid vehicle plans for India

Targets sale of 10,000 units before Diwali

Hyundai Motor India is planning to deliver around 10,000 units of its fifth generation of sedan Verna before Diwali and targets sales of around 4,500 units per month. Hyundai has invested around Rs 1,040 crore for development including safety and efficiency. 

The company is planning to start exports of the car from the end of this year and to outpace the domestic sales in 2018 with around 60,000 units exports target a year.

Y K Koo, managing director and CEO of Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), said that the bookings for the next generation Verna will be held between Friday and August 21 and it will be launched on August 22. The model was unveiled in the company's factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. 

"We are expecting that the first 10,000 units will be delivered before Diwali," said Koo. The company is yet to finalise the price, but the price range may start at less than Rs 10 lakh for the low and middle variants. In future, the company will have to increase the price.

"Every month we are targeting 4,000-4,500 units per month, because have some limit to the production volume in our factory," he said. "While the domestic sales are expected at around 50,000 units a year, the exports will be around 60,000 units a year. It is starting more exports from 2018 to Middle East market," he said. It is planning to serve the Middle East, European market including Turkey and Israel, Latin America and Asian markets.

The current version of Verna launched in 2011, clocks in around 700 units sale per month. The model has seen 8.8 million customers in over 66 countries and 3.17 lakh units in India. At this moment the company has no plan to introduce mild hybrid and will focus on petrol and diesel variants.

"Now we are ready to come back to the market, in middle and high segment," he said. The size of the market segment it is placed see around 12,000 units size.

The company has earlier launched Elantra, last August, which is in the same K-2 platform that offers higher safety benefits for the customer.

The company will invest around Rs 5,000 crore from 2017 till 2020 to launch eight new products. This year the company targets production to be around 6,70,000 units.

He ruled out possibilities of sharing products, sales or manufacturing facility with Kia Motors, a group company of the Korean automobile major, which is setting up a manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh.