 "Passenger vehicle sales to grow 3-4% in 2024: Hyundai COO Tarun Garg")
The passenger vehicle (PV) industry’s volume sales is expected to grow by 3-4 per cent in 2024, in view of a high base in 2023, overall demand, the geopolitical scenario and rising interest rates, according to Hyundai Motor India’s chief operating officer Tarun Garg.
Garg told reporters on Tuesday that the share of sport utility vehicles (SUV) in the company’s total volume sales — currently at about 60 per cent — was expected to go up to 65 per cent this year. However, he does not see this share crossing 70 per cent ever as the South Korean carmaker remains a “full range manufacturer” that will not ignore customers who prefer hatchbacks.
The company on Tuesday launched its Creta facelift at a starting price of Rs 10.99 lakh (ex-showroom). “If you see the last two-three months, it has reached 62-63 per cent already. With the new Creta coming in, and with Exter already present since July, I am expecting 65 per cent in 2024,” Garg said.
According to Hyundai, there is still a market for hatchbacks despite a declining share in overall sales. “The Nios, the Aura and the i20 are doing really well...We don’t want to be a 100 per cent SUV maker because that would mean we are ignoring a big chunk of the customer segment, which as a full range manufacturer we don’t want to do,” Garg added.
He said that the Indian PV industry expected volume sales growth of 3.5 to 5 per cent in 2023 but eventually it went up to 8.2 per cent. Hyundai’s domestic sales increased by 9 per cent in 2023 to 602,111 units.
“I am definitely expecting growth (in 2024), probably in lower single digits, between 3 and 4 per cent...The CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for the last five years has been 3.5 per cent for the Indian auto industry, if you look at figures till 2022. The CAGR for the last 10 years has also been 3.5 per cent. So, 3.5 per cent is not a bad CAGR,” he noted.
Indian PV makers sold 4.1 million units, recording 8.2 per cent annual growth, in 2023. “If we are able to grow 3-4 per cent — considering the high base, all the geopolitical risks, elections coming in, inflation, interest rates, etc. — it would be very good,” Garg said.
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In August 2023, Hyundai signed a purchase agreement with General Motors India to acquire the latter’s Talegaon plant in Maharashtra. Garg reiterated that the company was looking to start operations at the plant in 2025.
Do the multiple court cases by worker unions of former owner General Motors concern Hyundai?
“We have a very clear agreement and we are sticking to those terms,” Garg said, adding: “As of now, an asset purchase agreement has been signed, and the plant is an important step for us to reach an annual capacity of 1 million units and the production will start sometime in 2025.”
Garg does not think that the general elections, slated in the second quarter of 2024, would have a direct impact on PV sales “negatively or positively”.
“It is much more about the geopolitical risks and interest rates, which unfortunately have been going up. So let’s see how it pans out. Ultimately, 80 per cent of the cars are financed,” he said.