NEW DELHI: Aiming to strengthen its presence in the hatchback segment, India’s second-largest carmaker Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) on Tuesday launched the third-generation version of its compact hatchback Grand i10 Nios at a price range between Rs 4.99 lakh and Rs 7.99 lakh.
While the petrol variant costs Rs 4.99-7.14 lakh, the i10 Nios diesel variant has been priced at Rs 6.7-7.99 lakh. This is the carmaker’s third launch in recent months after compact sports utility vehicle Venue and electric SUV Kona. Analysts say faced with a shrinking market, car-makers are trying to pep up demand by tweaking features and coming up with new launches.
Hyundai said it has received over 55,000 bookings for Venue in last three months, which helped it to improve its market share in July to 19.4 per cent. This is Hyundai’s largest ever market share in India.
Despite this blockbuster launch, Hyundai sales in April-June period were down by 7.7 per cent year-on-year.
“This is a very challenging time for the market but with the new Grand i10 Nios, we are confident of meeting and exceeding the expectations of our customers. We want to become the brand of choice for Indian customers,” SS Kim, Managing Director and CEO, HMIL said.
With the launch of the new Grand, Hyundai’s product portfolio in the mass volume segment will include the Santro, Grand i10, Nios and Elite i20. In Q1 of FY19, compact hatchback segment made up 48 per cent of the total vehicles sold India.