Hyundai targets Creta customers with seven-seater Alcazar
South Korean carmaker Hyundai will venture into the segment of seven-seater SUVS with the Alcazar.
The company believes that the new car will help it further strengthen its market share in the SUV segment, which is the fastestgrowing space in India’s auto industry.
Hyundai Motor Group was at the top of SUV sales charts for the calendar year 2020, with both Hyundai and Kia in dominating positions. Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) sells Venue, Creta, and Tucson in the domestic market
“A lot of our last year launches were segment creators,” said Tarun Garg, director, sales, marketing and services.
The Alcazar, Garg said, will target customers who want to move a level up from the Creta, the company’s successful model of which it has sold 6,00,000 units. “We had market research where we could clearly see that we had sold over 600,000 Cretas and many of these customers were now looking for an upgrade. They feel that they have now reached a notch higher in their life and they want to travel in luxury; they want ‘premiumness’ in their car, and they want a little more versatility,” said Garg.
Garg said that the sevenseater SUV target nuclear families with teenagers, who want to travel in comfortable space. “Sometimes you would like to be chauffer-driven. Then the second and the third rows come in handy.”
“After the lockdown, people want to spend more time with family and travel together in a car. If you see the trend of vacation, it was about taking a flight and fly to some international destination. Now, it has changed to places within five to six hours range where they can drive with family,” he said
The SUV segment is the fastest-growing section in India’s auto market, contributing 34 per cent of sales in FY21. Hyundai now has the largest market share in SUVS — 26 per cent.