Leading automaker Hyundai Motor India is cautiously optimistic regarding the upcoming festive season with the COVID-19 pandemic shadow looming large over the period which otherwise witnesses robust offtakes for the entire domestic automobile industry. The South Korean auto major, which is the second largest passenger vehicle player in the country after Maruti Suzuki, has seen its sales grow month after month since May after the nationwide lockdown ended and companies rebooted operations.
From zero units in April to sale of 6,883 units in May, 21,320 units in June and 38,200 units in July, the automaker has seen sales grow in a robust manner over the past few months.
However, with intermittent lockdowns continuing across various parts of the country and challenges remaining in terms of supply chain and availability of skilled labour, the company remains guarded in its optimism regarding the festive season.
But at the same time there is the pandemic situation, and so how long this ongoing pent-up demand would sustain is a big question for everyone. People are looking at personal mobility options, but it is very difficult to predict whether they will prepone their purchase decision or just wait for things to improve.
One positive factor has been the continued robust response for the sport utility vehicle (SUV) segment in the post-Covid scenario.
As long as you offer a good product, with latest technology and fuel options, a customer is willing to buy. The company continued to lead SUV segment with products like Venue, Creta, Tucson and Kona EV. HMIL has already sold 34,212 units in the segment in April-July period this fiscal.
The automaker has received strong response for the new Creta, with over 70,000 bookings in the first five months of launching the model in March this year. Smaller towns and rural areas are performing better in terms of sales when compared to metro cities where recovery has been slow. Towns in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are doing better for the company in terms of sales.
The company is also ramping up production at its Chennai-based manufacturing facility to cater to any uptick in demand situation. Both its plants are running on three shifts and continuously ramping up production. Dealer stocks are also being ramped up. On new product launches, the automaker has already introduced four products — Aura and newer versions of Creta, Verna and Tucson this year, and it would continue to refresh its model range going ahead.