Rising volume in the compact sedan segment has caught serious attention of the Korean carmaker as Hyundai Motor on Monday announced its foray into the same segment by unveiling ‘Xcent’.
With its foray into the sub-four metre segment, Hyundai’s ‘Xcent’ would be competing with the likes of Maruti Suzuki Dzire, Honda’s Amaze and Tata Motors’ upcoming Zest.
“With the Xcent, we are entering one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian car market. last year, the compact sedan segment grew by 39 per cent at about 24,000 units a month. We want to be a significant player in this segment,” said HMIl Senior Vice President Rakesh Srivastava after unveiling the sub-four metre sedan.
The company plans to launch the product by March with the hope of a positive sales growth this year after witnessing an overall decline of 1.2 per cent at 6.33 lakh units n 2013.
“The Xcent is a world class product developed for the Indian market...Xcent symbolises Hyundai’s commitment to Indian customers by offering high standards of quality,” said Hyundai Motor India ltd (HMIl) Managing Director and CEO Seo while launching the product.
Xcent would be available in two engine options — petrol and diesel but the company has not announced its price yet. This is the sedan version based on the same platform as the compact car Grand i10, which HMIl had launched in September last year.
“This year we believe we will have a positive growth. The new model will play its part and we will also grow in the compact car segment as our Grand i10 is also doing well, clocking about 10,000 units a month,” Srivastava said.
He said the company has a total production capacity of 6.75 lakh units annually at present and the aim would be to utilise it fully.
When asked if the company would make fresh investments for adding capacity on a new plant, he said:”We would like to watch the market this year before we decide. We have sufficient capacity..”
When asked to comment on its product ‘i10’ failing crash tests, thus enadangering human life, Srivastava only said that the company follows Indian rules and regulation properly.
Some of the most popular small cars sold in India, including Maruti Alto 800, Tata Nano, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 and Volkswagen Polo, have failed crash tests, showing high risk of life-threatening injuries in road accidents, according to Global NCAP.