Hyundai India has crossed the 8 million cars production milestone in India. The Korean automaker is currently the second largest automaker in India after Maruti Suzuki and currently accounts for about 16 per cent of all car sales in the country. Incidentally, the 8 million mark for Hyundai comes only days after Suzuki's India operations announced that it had crossed the 20 million vehicles produced milestone in India. Hyundai started making cars in India in 1998 by launching the Santro, which is about to make its namesake comeback in India as a new supermini to take on the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Alto and the Renault Kwid. The 8 millionth car made was, unsurprisingly, a Hyundai Creta.
Hyundai India's first 1 million production mark was achieved in 2006 and it was also a Santro (or Santro Zing at the time), which was just 8 years after production began. Post the first million, Hyundai has made about 1 million cars every 18 months or so. The Korean automaker in FY 2017 made 5,36,241 units, its largest ever production. To date, Hyundai has sold 5,300,967 units in India and 2,703,581 units as exports.
Commenting on this new milestone, Y.K Koo, Managing Director and CEO, Hyundai India said, "Today marks a momentous and landmark day in the history of Hyundai Motor India with the achievement of 8 Millionth Milestone. Hyundai is the only manufacturer to achieve this feat in the shortest span of time while strengthening our Manufacturing Excellence, Customer Experience, Marketing Innovation and Corporate Social Responsibility. In our evolving journey to becoming India's most Loved and Trusted brand, we have pushed the boundaries and taken on new challenges at every step. Our vision is to deliver on the promise of becoming the 'Lifetime Partners in Automobile and beyond'. I dedicate this achievement to our valuable customers and every member of the Hyundai family."
2018 has been a year of major updates for Hyundai so far. First, at the Indian Auto Expo in February, Hyundai launched the facelifted i20 premium hatchback. Available with a petrol and diesel engine, the new i20 was also updated even further by adding a CVT gearbox to the lineup. You can read our review of the i20 CVT here. Hyundai also launched an updated and facelifted version of the popular Creta SUV. The SUV now gets features like a sunroof along with an updated front end and more tech like wireless charging for cell phones.
