Hyundai’s Position in India – An Overview

In 1996, Hyundai Motor Company, a South Korean Carmaker entered India as a fully-owned subsidiary called Hyundai Motor India and set up their 1st plant near Chennai. Since then, the brand has managed to establish itself as one of India’s largest vehicle manufacturers, going toe-to-toe with Maruti Suzuki.

Currently, Hyundai has the following cars in its portfolio: Grand i10 Nios, i20, i20 N Line, Verna, Exter, Venue, Venue N Line, Aura, Creta, Creta N Line, Tucson, Alcazar and Ioniq 5.

Hyundai’s Consistency

During its entire run In India, Hyundai has managed to stay in the podium, mostly at the 2nd place. For reference, In June 2024, Maruti sold 1,37,160 cars while Hyundai sold less than half at 50,163. Hyundai was also the carmaker in India with the highest number of exports in its initial years and it took nearly two decades for Maruti Suzuki to beat them. But the gap between the two brands is closer than you think.

Maruti Suzuki delivered 69,962 in FY23-24 vehicles while Hyundai exported 42,600 units in FY23-24. Do note, that the car export business in India as a whole hit a 5.5% decline in FY24 courtesy of the global financial crisis that impacted some of the foreign markets. Total exports declined from 47,61,299 units to 45,00,492 units.

The higher figures for Maruti Suzuki in both scenarios might be because their cars in general are a bit more affordable, fuel-efficient and they have one of the biggest service networks in the world. At least in India, Maruti Suzuki has managed to stay at the top because of these reasons.

Hyundai on the other managed to stay in the top 3 all these years because of their good design, reliability and technology. They are also on the affordable side while offering solid build quality. The Korean carmaker also faces cutthroat competition with Tata Motors. In fact, in recent years it’s much closer than their rivalry with Maruti.

Problems faced by Hyundai

Tata Motors has dethroned Hyundai from their 2nd spot on several occasions and even their portfolio is similarly priced like the Hyundai Creta competes with Tata Harrier, Venue with Nexon, Exter with Punch, i20 with Altroz and i20 N Line with Altroz Racer.

So, while Hyundai might not reach 1st just yet they definitely need to stay on their feet to not lose to Tata Motors. There are also other brands to look out for like Mahindra & Mahindra and Toyota, both of which have recently experienced a year-on-year growth of 22.80% and 41.20% respectively and are growing at a rapid pace so it won’t be wrong to say that Hyundai’s top position in India might be threatened right now. Remember that, with so many new feature-loaded cars launched in India, the market is just so competitive right now that it’s unpredictable to say which brand might just climb the ranks or fall down.

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