Hyundai Motor India (HMIL), the second-largest carmaker in India, has been for quite some time now working on a new small car to rival Maruti’s hot seller Alto which will be placed below the Hyundai Santro. The new small car, codenamed HA 800 has been seen doing rounds all over Chennai for quite some time now, but until now there had been no information from Hyundai regarding the launch of the new Hyundai HA 800.
Now, Hyundai has revealed its plans for the new small car in India. According to Y K Koo, Senior Director (Sales and Marketing) HMIL, “We are planning to launch it in the first half of next year. The car will be manufactured in Indian plant. Hyundai Motor India is very strong in compact car segment. With this launch, we hope to dominate the rural market also. That is our strategy. If we have a small car it is easy to penetrate into the rural market,”
Hyundai India is planning to launch a small car in India at the 2012 Delhi Auto Expo. Hyundai will position this new small car in India that will directly compete against Nano and Alto.
Hyundai small car will be powered by an 800cc engine with decent performance figures that is currently developed at the company’s R&D headquarter in Korea. The company will not export the car initially and will be manufactured at its Chennai plant.
Hyundai is also increasing the number of outlets as the new car will help the company to increase its share in the rural and tier 2 towns.
Image credit – Autoesporte (via BurnyOnfuel ), AutoCarIndia
