A continual slide of slowdown has seen major automakers scramble. With festivities being the flavour of the week, there’s some cheer. Hyundai and Kia India has carried out a mega delivery for Dhanteras. 12,500 deliveries on a single day would surely give the folks at Hyundai something to celebrate. There’s no info on which cars sold like hotcakes today.
On the other hand, their sister company, Kia India has delivered 2,184 Seltos SUVs today. Earlier in the day, MG India revealed that they delivered 700 Hector SUVs.
Hyundai India, much like other manufacturers is struggling with sales. For the first three quarters of 2019 the company has reported 8.37 percent sales decline. While it’s not an ideal situation, things could have been worse considering how steep a decline certain manufacturers have reported. If Hyundai is able to power through Q4 2019, the company will end the year in single digit sales decline.
With 3,77,702 cars sold through January – September 2019, Hyundai India now enjoys 17.18 percent market share. Despite sales volume contraction, Hyundai is basking in the glory of improved market share. For the said 9 months last year, Hyundai India market share stood at 15.77 percent.
Kia on the other hand, is struggling with growing demand. The company has plans to increase production of Seltos even further. Kia Seltos is currently the best selling mid-sized SUV in the country. It has replaced Hyundai Creta from the top spot.
Kia Seltos success has allowed the company to command a market share of 3.5 percent, ahead of more established automakers like Ford, VW and Skoda who all have a long standing presence in the country.
To keep up with demand, Kia Motors has now added a second shift at the Anantapur facility in Andhra Pradesh. In addition to this, an added 1,000 employees have also been taken on. This will take capacity up to 15,000 units per month and even plans increase in capacity upto 4 lakh units per annum as against an early 3 lakh units if demand continues at its present pace.
For this increase in production, the company has also boosted supplies from both local and global vendors and enhanced the pace of delivery.
Kia Motors is also planning launch of the new Carnival premium MPV by January 2020 while a new sub 4 meter SUV is also in the making with launch planned sometime mid 2020. Plans are also afoot for one new product every 6 months over a period of the next 3 years with a target of 5 percent market share.
