Hyundai Entry into the Indian Market - Historical Background

1) Indian Car Industry history - Syed

2) Hyundai Historical background before coming to India - Syed

3) Hyundai entry into the Indian Market - historical background - Vipin

4) Launch of Hyundai Santro and Marketing strategies - Vipin

5) Launch of Hyundai Ascent and Marketing strategies - Vipin

6) Launch of other models - like Verna etc - Syed

7) Challenges faced and Steps taken - Vipin

8) Position in 2015 and the road ahead – Syed

Hyundai entry into the Indian Market - historical background

In early 1993, Government of India de-licensed the auto industry and opened doors for global players.  Hyundai was one of the foreign car manufacturers that started its operations in India post-1993. Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) was formed on 6 May 1996 by the Hyundai Motor Company, South Korea.  Till that time Indian car market was mainly dominated by Maruti Suzuki India Limited and Hindustan Motors, Premier, Tata and Mahindra were the other players. Daewoo Motors entered Indian market with brand “Cielo” around 3 years back and Ford, Opel and Honda were in the initial phase of their operations in India.

Exhibit-1 Indian Car Industry in 1998-99     Source: SIAM

For more than a decade (1983-1996), Maruti Suzuki had an almost domination in the passenger cars segment because Indian players Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra were focused solely on utility and commercial vehicles, while Hindustan Motors and Premier Ltd. both built outdated and uncompetitive cars. Hyundai setup a subsidiary Hyundai Motors India Limited (HMIL) in 1996 and invested in an integrated manufacturing facility in the country.

“They followed a contrarian approach. While Ford Motor Company and General Motors focussed on bigger cars, Hyundai, a relatively unknown player, chose to bring out a compact car. Though it was the largest segment in volume terms, it was the most competitive as well,” recalls Jagdish Khattar, who was the managing director of Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker at the time Santro was launched.1 

HMIL top management did an extensive market & consumer research to understand the need, requirements and expectations of Indian consumer from a car. Initially, Hyundai Motors toyed with the idea to bring its best fast-selling compact car in Korea—Atoz—to India. The company redesigned the model as per need of Indian market through multiple iterations. “We dropped that idea as its design was far too radical for the Indian consumer’s taste. It was instead decided that we would tweak Atoz’s design,” says BVR Subbu, former president of HMIL and one of the first employees of the company1.