Hyundai ups Santro sales target

The Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) has upped its monthly Santro sales target to 12,000 units in 2005 from 8,000 units in 2004. This is despite the lacklustre sales in February and March and the lack of reduction in excise duty in the Budget.

The upscale revision could be a steep one considering the sales of this C segment car barely managed to cross the 10,000-mark in January, while the February sales plummeted to 5,500 units.

While the Budget expectation (of a reduction in the excise duty of 24 per cent) in February kept buyers away, the failure to clinch an excise duty reduction dampened the March sales.

While the total sales of Santro in calendar 2004 managed to cross the 100,000-mark (104,748 to be precise), the target for 2005 has been set nearly 50 per cent above this.

To start with, the time-tested formula has already been applied. A stripped down version, SantroX, is out in the market at an alluring price of Rs 2.72 lakh, a clear Rs 58,000 lower than the erstwhile entry level SantroX.

"The SantroX will sure be a crowd puller but that is not all that we have in our strategy to improve the model 's volumes," assured a company insider.

Starting last month, the company has already begun renewed pep talks with its dealers. Some industry sources believe that the success of the Korean car maker in the Indian terrain has got into the dealers' head, leading to some complacency.

"We have stared urging the dealer principal (owner) to get more hands on with the business," said a company source.

The company is also expanding the dealer network. In 2005 the company plans to up the dealer outlets from 136 to 150.

"We will be going to smaller towns this time around," said an HMIL official. Even with 150 dealer outlets, this barely comes close to the halfway mark of market leader Maruti Udyog's 300-odd dealers.

However, SantroX will be pushed into the north-eastern states and other parts with similar topography, where AC or power-steering would be an avoidable accessory.

Some in HMIL even believe that the 12,000 units a month might eat into the Maruti800 and Alto market. The next nine months could see a lot of action in this segment, considering the Korean car marker's aggression in getting its numbers right.