“Maybe next year!”
That’s what S S Kim, MD and CEO of Hyundai Motor India said about N Performance cars coming to India
ON THE INDUSTRY SLOWDOWN
“We are introducing a new product in this market, hoping that this will change the customer's mindset and it will play a very important role as a trigger function. That's our basic plan. We are introducing a great product, even though the market is a little bit frozen. Compared to other OEMs, our situation is a bit better. Every OEM has experienced degrowth by two digits, especially in the month of July. The industry average degrowth is almost at 30 per cent in the passenger vehicle segment. Our degrowth is almost 10 per cent. We have degrown, but we are a little bit better off. “
On the market picking up and government support
“Hopefully [the market will pick up] in the near future, depending on some critical factors such as government support package and macroeconomic situation change. In many countries, even in the developed countries such as USA or in European countries, if the automotive sector faces some recessions, we could see that those countries' governments support the automotive sector considering the importance of the automotive sector. The automotive sector is not merely a part of the manufacturing area but is central to the manufacturing sector and very heavily affects the other related areas in terms of employment, business, volume growth and also the overall economic growth. So I believe that the Indian government will take some counter measures in the end.”
The NIOS’ diesel engine is BS 6 ready, but not BS 6 compliant
“There has to be a minimum or optimum price increase and we don't want to cause a burden to the customer. So if necessary, we would minimise the burden. We are ready with a diesel BS 6-compliant vehicle, but are watching the market and preparing for the right timing. For the petrol, the price increase would be minimal, but in case of diesel there will be some price increase. We already supply the Euro 6-compliant vehicles in many countries. We can share our R&D costs across the countries which will be a benefit to the Indian market. “
On the N brand coming to India
“Well, of course. You experienced some of the cars in Korea, so why not? Hopefully sometime next year.”