 "Hyundai Creta")
Creta, Hyundai’s sports utility vehicle (SUV) launched about five months ago, is cruising towards an order book of 100,000 units this year, the fastest by an Indian car in recent times. Creta has seen bookings of 92,000 units so far, of which 16,000 are for export.
“After generating a tremendous response in the domestic market with 75,000 bookings, Creta has been globally launched with an overwhelming response. We have already shipped 12,270 units so far to export destinations,” said Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president (sales & marketing).
Creta, manufactured only in India, has been shipped to 77 countries. The SUV is exported to Latin American countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Panama; West Asian markets of Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia; and African countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria. The south Korean car maker has been the largest exporter of passenger vehicles from the country for the past few years, shipping to around 60.
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Creta has had long waiting period since the launch. The current wait is in excess of three months in the domestic market. Hyundai, when it launched Creta in July, planned to produce 6,500 units every month. However, it had to raise it to 7,500 units in subsequent months. From January, the company will further increase the production to 10,000 units. Of the 75,000 domestic bookings, deliveries of 35,000 have been done.
Of the major launches this year, not many vehicles have crossed a booking of even 50,000 units. Some are Renault Kwid (75,000 approximately) and Maruti Suzuki Baleno (around 55,000).
In recent years, some other SUVs have also crossed the 100,000-mark in sales. Ford’s compact SUV EcoSport had touched a sales mark of 100,000 units (domestic and exports) in August 2014, fourteen months after the launch. In August 2015, EcoSport touched 200,000 units. Renault’s SUV Duster touched domestic sales of 100,000 units in June 2014, two years after the launch.
The launch of Creta, followed by Maruti S Cross and Mahindra TUV300, has helped grow the utility vehicle (UV) segment in the country. After months of negative to flat growth, the domestic UV segment has started growing at a high double-digit rate, higher to passenger cars.
Ever since the start of the current financial year, UVs grew at a rate significantly lower to passenger cars. This changed perceptibly in October when UVs grew at 21 per cent compared to 22 per cent growth in cars. The trend strengthened further in November when UVs grew at 20 per cent compared to a growth rate of 10 per cent seen in cars.
