Hyundai Motor India managing director HS Lheem announced that Hyundai will be developing a Rs 1.5 lakh (RM11,360) car for the Chinese and Indian markets.
The car will be developed in India at R&D facilities in Hyderabad and Chennai with support from Korea, with a target launch set somewhere in 2011 or 2012. Hyundai is the number two car manufacturer in India and their cheapest car is the Hyundai Santro (Hyundai Atos) which sells for Rs 2.7 lakh (RM20,450).
India is a market where both the Hyundai i10 (rebadged 2008 Picanto) and the Hyundai Santro are offered, but the more expensive i10 are slowly eating into Santro sales because the Indian market is maturing, and at that price point they’d rather pay a little bit more in terms of monthly installment to get something that looks better and more modern.
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
Our previous Proton Iswara (RM26000) almost can meet their price
how much was the proton saga when it first launch?
The Hyundai i10 is not a facelift of Atos. It is supposedly a replacement model and it is all newly developed. Word also has it that Inokom has stopped production of the Atos and we would have i10 as replacement soon.
I’m not too sure if going downscale to lower priced cars is a smart idea. Hyundai is trying too hard to get their hands in everything. Recently they launched their so called ultra luxury model and now a Nano rival?
Well… this is abit tricky. The Atos and i10, wheelbase same, engines nearly same, just styling different. Just like how Hyundai has been applying this new styling to their Hyundai Matrix. Maybe you can consider it a new development, but I believe the amount of parts carried over qualifies it to be called “heavily facelifted” as well
why can’t we have Saga or Viva at RM20k ?
I think original saga was RM18k right? Now expansive cause need to pay for expansive raw mats. This is like, if you want cheap buy Kancil, got money abit, go for kelissa. Same with india market. Cheap, go nano, a bit more, go hyundai.
Glad to hear that the i10 is doing well… The i10 should be a nice car as most verditcs given to i10 are positive in many ways… Good Luck Hyundai!
all goin to da cheap market…
This will definitely will be the next Inokom for sure.