'India sales expected to be best this year on robust demand'

NEW DELHI: South Korean auto major Hyundai is expecting best ever sales in India this year as it looks to produce more with easing of chip supply concerns, according to a senior company official.

The company, which on Tuesday expanded its N Line range in the country with the introduction of Venue N Line trim, is also banking on strong demand for its products with the pending order list having crossed the 1.3-lakh unit mark.

''The semiconductor situation is easing and demand continues to be robust...This year we are fairly confident that we will achieve the highest ever domestic sales in the history of the company in India,'' Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) Director-Sales, Marketing, Service Tarun Garg told PTI in an interaction.

The company had logged best ever domestic wholesales of 5.5 lakh units in 2018, he said.

The automaker dispatched 49,510 units to dealers last month, a 6 per cent increase over August 2021. Hyundai is one of the companies in the domestic market which suffered substantial production loss owing to chip shortage.

Garg noted that the contribution of its SUV lineup to the total sales was going up and remained better than the industry's.

The company sells five models in the SUV segment -- Venue, Creta, Alcazar, Tucson and Kona Electric. It has now added the sixth one -- the Venue N Line.

''SUVs are now contributing 53 per cent to the domestic sales.. the industry average in comparison is 41 per cent.. new Venue and Tucson have received strong bookings,'' Garg said.

He noted that the company was having a backlog of over 1.3 lakh units.

''We always had strong demand but for some time the semiconductor shortage was hampering our supplies. Now, the demand is there and with the easing of chip supplies we aim to produce more..in the first five months of this year we were selling around 43,000-44,000 units on an average each month and now we are consistently doing around 49,000 units,'' Garg stated.

With production increasing, the company expects faster deliveries, cutting down the long waiting list on some of the models in the festive season, he added.

Hyundai has introduced the Venue N Line in two trims priced at Rs 12.16 lakh and Rs 13.15 lakh (ex-showroom).

''Venue N Line has been introduced to India as a part of our vision of redefining mobility experiences for customers and with this new launch, we will now offer two N Line models in a short span of two years,'' HMIL Managing Director and CEO Unsoo Kim stated.

The Venue N Line is the second N Line model from the company. In September last year, the automaker introduced the i20 N Line in the country.

The Venue N Line comes with a 1-litre turbo petrol engine mated with seven-speed DCT (automatic) transmission. Garg said the company expects the Venue N Line sales to touch 10,000 unit mark per month next year.

''We are witnessing 10-11 per cent i20 sales coming from the N Line trim..we expect the total N Line portfolio, including Venue N Line could become 16,000 units next year.. we believe this number will continue to go up,'' he added.

Globally, Hyundai sells N Line trims, which come with sporty enhancements, in various regions like Europe, South Korea, the US and Russia, among others.

Its first N-branded vehicle was the i30 N, which made its debut in 2017.