Hyundai says the Eon is conceived, designed and developed for India. Here’s why.
At the time of the launch of the Eon, the smallest car developed by Seoul-headquartered Hyundai globally, Arvind Saxena, Hyundai Motor India’s director for marketing and sales in the country, said the company and its vendors have jointly spent Rs 900 crore to develop the car, the lowest investment ever made by the company to develop a model. “Eon has been specifically built keeping in mind the varied Indian conditions and special requirements of the customers here,” Hyundai’s Managing Director and CEO H W Park said at the launch. The company hoped that the Eon’s design will help it stand out in a market dominated by boxy and often under-proportioned models.
The Eon went on to sell 6,315 units within 15 days of its launch in a slowing market prompting many reviewers to say that the car will pose a serious challenge to leader Maruti Suzuki’s Alto (Alto is the first car to have sold 1 lakh units in a record time of 150 days) as well as other small cars such as the Chevrolet Spark. The company was ecstatic — it looked the gambit was paying off.
Conceived, designed and developed over four years, the Eon is undoubtedly a smart car. With its un-interrupted flowing curves — which the company calls Fluidic Sculpture, its new design philosophy which embodies a flowing and dynamic form execution — and strong character lines, the Eon is sure to turn a few heads on the road. The familiar Hyundai hexagonal grille, the swept back headlamps, the half-moon shaped tail-lamps along with other distinctive design elements make the Hyundai Eon “a design revolution”, said the company — something which will help draw the first-time buyers to the new car.
The company believes that this segment — young professionals who were buying their first car with their hard earned money — has changed a lot over the years in terms of what they expect from the vehicle they drove around in. “Our research indicated a clear shift in consumer preferences from say five years ago. Earlier consumers in the compact segment would have looked out for mileage, price, styling and interior space in that order. Our research showed the order has changed to mileage — that’s the hygiene factor in the segment — then styling, space and interiors and finally pricing,” says Saxena. And it is this finding that determined the way Hyundai, the second largest car maker and the largest exporter from India, went about building the Eon.
The Eon returns a mileage of 21.1 km/lt, compared to Maruti Alto K 10’s 20.2 km/lt, and the Chevrolet Spark’s 18.0 km/lt (approved, according to the company website by the Automotive Research Association of India). Best in class and as the company says a hygiene factor in the segment. Sporting an introductory price of between Rs 2.69 lakh and Rs 3.71 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), the base Eon stands a notch lower than others in the category: Chevrolet Spark wears a tag of Rs 3.17 lakh-Rs 3.76 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The 998-cc Alto K10 comes for Rs 3.04 lakh and Rs 3.20 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
Interestingly, the company believes that price can’t be a differentiator in a market where owning a car is something still very aspirational. “In that case, the Nano (from Tata Motors) would have been the largest selling car in the country,” says Saxena. “We call this value adjusted pricing,” he continues. “It’s not just about competition; it’s more about what value we are offering the consumer and how much she is willing to pay for it. And believe me the Indian consumers are willing to pay for things they really want and things they feel deserve it.”
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The other two features — styling, space and interiors — are the ones where the Eon has worked really hard to be as “Indian” as possible. According to Saxena, Hyundai took several cues from Indian art and culture to fashion the end product. For instance, the seat fabric, with patterns of curving lines, drew from depictions on Indian silk. As was the centre console’s vase-like shape that was influenced to a great extent by Indian iconography. “You don’t get this look and feel in a car this size or at this price,” asserts Saxena.
The most interesting is the story behind the shape and size of the bottle holder. It appears Hyundai’s India unit shipped hundreds of bottles of various shapes and sizes belonging to different brands to its South Korea design centre to arrive at the shape that best served the purpose. “India is hot and unlike Europeans people here like to carry their own water and larger bottles at that,” points out Saxena. “We had to arrive at a design wherein a tall bottle will not topple over.”
The company’s designers and engineers at the headquarters also spent an enormous amount of time on giving the ultra-small car the appearance of a bigger unit. It helped that advances in steel fabrication made it easier to tweak the relatively small panels to give the Eon's exterior curves a look similar to the larger sedans the company manufacturers for the US and European markets. The ground clearance and air-conditioning — all that factored in the road and weather conditions peculiar to India. A feature like gear-shift indicator that aids the driver in driving at optimum gear condition is something one would expect in a bigger car or a car priced slightly higher. If the i10 and i20 can have it, so can the Eon, went the reasoning at Hyundai.
The Fluidic Sculpture also ensured the car's surfaces were stretched to the corners like they are in larger vehicles. “This Fluidic Sculpture concept flows in such a manner that it gives a sense of space and can be seen in all our models irrespective of size,” points out Saxena. In the inside, a higher ceiling and longer back doors which opened more than the rear doors in other models gave a feeling of openness. “We got the prototype over in India twice and took great pains to incorporate the feedback from the focus groups conducted with designers, engineers and some IIT professors. A case in point is the rear window, which at one point came out as being very narrow. We went ahead and changed the back glass even after the pilot car evaluation,” says Saxena.
Will all this keep the flag flying for the Eon? Is the early response just a reflection of the hoopla around any new car launch? While Saxena admits that the Eon has seen under 10 per cent conversion of the 96,000 enquiries received, the company expects to sell around 1.4 lakh-1.5 lakh units of the car in its first year. Some media reports also suggest the Korean carmaker is hoping to make the Eon more compelling by adding a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) dual fuel engine to its line-up. The LPG powered Eon is likely to be launched as early as January 2012.
“In a challenging market we have been able to grow volumes and market share on the strength of our new launches — the new Verna and the Eon,” says Saxena, admitting all is not well: “Our immediate outlook on the market is not too bright as interest rates and fuel prices are unlikely to soften in the forseeable future.”