India’s second largest car maker, Hyundai, is scheduling its proposed small car to vie Maruti Alto, in a smooth manner. The company is well on its journey in the A segment with its flagships, Santro and i10 and the R&D wing of the company in Korea is in full swing for developing the small car to be pitted against Alto. The official from the company revealed that everything is going as per schedule and is on well course but did not specify the proposed date of launch. The new version will be below Santro and be on par Maruti Alto, (which is receiving a sale of 20000 units per month). The CEO of Hyundai said there will be a plan for launching new models, at least two or three, every year and Santa Fe is slated for October 2010. He admitted that the company may face a fall in export market due to the slackening in certain overseas markets. The export volume this year may be around 2.50lakhs against 2.60 lakhs in 2009 he said. He added that in addition to 110 countries currently under the export venture, there will be 8 more countries this year for export.
The CEO launched the upgraded hatchback Next Gen i10 recently in Tamilnadu. The car is coming under an upgradation mode at an investment of Rs400 crore and exhibits vigorous design change, 3D wraparound headlamps with multi-reflector chrome surround fog lamps and an all new chrome radiator grill. The Next Gen i10 comes with a 1.1 lit at Rs3.48 lakhs and 1.2 lit Kappa engine version is priced Rs4.14 lakhs. The company’s facility near Chennai has the capacity for i10, Santro, Accent Executive, Verna Transform sedan, Sonata luxury sedan.