Hyundai India to Begin Third Shift in the Second Plant ahead of its i20 Launch

Hyundai Motor India Ltd is planning to open up a third shift at its second plant in Chennai after seeing tremendous success in its small car i10, which has seen a growing demand both in domestic and export markets. In fact, more than 100,000 units of Hyundai i10 has been sold in the last six months and that gave enough ground for the company to launch its second plant in February. So far, there have been two shifts in its second plant, but three shifts have already been underway in its first plant.

However, with growing demand of i10 and a possible launch of i20, another launch from Hyundai in small car segment, there is no doubt, Hyundai India has enough justification to begin a third shift in its second plant as well. With this expected move, it is pretty much sure that Hyundai India is firmly going to hit its 2008 production target of 530,000 cars, which will be extended to 600,000 by the next year. Even that could be extended further up to 630,000 cars, by running one or two shifts on Sundays. However, still there will have scope to increase its production in India thanks to the growing demand of Hyundai’s small segment cars in India as well as in abroad.

The Hindu business line reported:

Some stretching — such as working a shift or two on Sundays — would enable to Hyundai to raise capacity to 630,000.

But with the growing demand for the i10 and the proposed launch of i20 (a car like the ‘Hyundai Accent’) by the end of this year, even that capacity would not be enough.

For beyond next year, the company will need to expand capacity further, Mr Lheem said.

According to Mr Lheem, there is scope for adding capacity for another 100,000 cars — incidentally, the capacity with which Hyundai began its show in India 10 years ago — by putting up a body shop and a paint shop in the vacant space behind the Plant-II.

Hyundai i10 was launched in India last year and instantly created a boom in the market. The car is produced from Hyundai’s two plants currently running in India. The increasing demand of Hyundai i10 has boosted up Hyundai’s sales growth in India this so far this year. In the first two months of the current fiscal year, Hyundai India saw 49 per cent of sales growth compared to the sales margin of the same period previous year. In the first quarter of the year, Hyundai India’s sales increased to 120,444 cars (including sales in both domestic and abroad market), 48 percent growth compared to last year.

The South Korean company is opening production plant in other growing markets like in Russia. However, it is expected that it would not affect the growth of Hyundai India Ltd. India one of the growing car market in the world and it is a price sensitive market as well. Naturally, small cars are quite popular in India. So, it is pretty much certain that Hyundai India has already made a strong ground in the small car market in India thanks to its i10 cars.

Hyundai i20 is expected to be launched in the festival season in India this year. The small car already attracted many people with its eye-catching features and stylish look. It is needless to say that the launch of i20 this year would only further boost up Hyundai’s sales this year, making its presence more vibrant in the small car segment in India.