In a race to topple Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai India have announced a major stepping stone. The second largest Indian car manufacturer has surpassed the 7 million production mark. The South Korean brand achieved this milestone in 18 years, much faster than Maruti Suzuki, who is the only other car company that has produced more than 7 million cars in India.
A major contributor to these 7 million cars was the Hyundai Santro, which was discontinued in January 2015. Hyundai’s i10 is also a noteworthy contributor from among current models in production while Grand i10, the new i20 Elite and Active, along with Creta and Eon have played a major role in Hyundai achieving this feat so fast.
Hyundai India started car production from their plant in Chennai back in 1998. The first millionth was produced in 2006, taking 8 years. With the company picking pace, every next million took lesser time to come out of the plant. The company aims to produce their 10 millionth car by first half of 2021.
The 7 millionth car was a Creta AT. MD, Mr. Y.K Koo was in the passenger seat, and VP production, Mr. Ganesh Mani S. in the driver’s seat when the car rolled off the production line earlier today.
Of a total of 2.6 million passenger vehicles sold in India during FY15, 1.17 million units were sold by Maruti Suzuki while 420,668 unit sales were contributed by Hyundai Motors during the same period. Hyundai Motors, the largest exporter of passenger vehicles in the country, currently operates from two plants in Chennai with total capacity of 680,000 units per annum. A third plant is also in the offing which would considerably add to company growth in the future.
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