Hyundai offers glimpse of new i30

South Korean auto major Hyundai Motor Company on Wednesday revealed the first picture of its new generation i30 hatchback, ahead of its unveiling at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week.

In a statement, Hyundai said it expected the new generation i30 to build on the success of the original model and also the company's first model to be launched with the prefix 'i'.

According to Hyundai, the original i30 was designed and engineered in Europe and rolled out of its factory in the Czech Republic in 2007.

Last year, Hyundai sold 115,000 i30 units in Europe.

After its July 2007 launch, the i30 went on to increase its sales in Europe every year, attracting 115,000 buyers in 2010 -- the highest-ever annual sales figure for an individual Hyundai model in Europe -- and achieving total sales of more than 350,000 units up to mid-2011.

The model has been designed and engineered at the Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Centre in R?sselsheim, Germany..

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Hyundai Equus gets 2011 top large premium car honors

Another day, another honor for Hyundai. Competing against the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series and Lexus LS, the perennial leaders, the Hyundai Equus luxury sedan has for the first time earned the top spot on J.D. Power and Associate’s APEAL (Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) Study for large premium cars.

It marks the first time since the survey’s inception in 1996 that a car other than a Mercedes, BMW or Lexus has claimed the large premium category. The base starting price for the Equus is $58,900.

Hyundai, which began selling cars in the United States in 1986, had its overall biggest jump in the ranking, improving from 28th in 2010 to 15th in 2011.

The study, now in its 16th year, surveys new car buyers after 90 days of ownership, asking them to rate their impression of their vehicle’s design, content, layout, and performance. Vehicles and their brands are scored on a 1,000 point scale.

The Equus totaled more than 900 points, the highest of any individual car.

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Hyundai beefing up rural network for low-cost car

Hyundai Motor India plans to add 300 rural sales outlets within the next two months as it gears up to launch its cheapest car in India by November this year.

Hyundai announced in May that it would launch a small car costing below Rs 3 lakh in November. Hyundai is gearing up to launch the small car, codenamed HA, to directly compete with market leader Maruti Suzuki’s Alto.

The new rural outlets will take its rural sales network to 1,000, apart from the standard 325 dealerships located in cities.

The country’s second largest carmaker will employ a total of about 2,000 sales executives in these rural outlets. Rural areas, according to Hyundai, are the markets that lie outside the top 40 cities.

According to Maruti Suzuki's chief general manager, marketing, Shashank Srivastava, the company has 960 standard dealerships and 3,400 ‘taluka’ outlets through which it sells the Alto, the largest selling car in the country. Maruti plans to raise the number of its taluka outlets to 3,600 by the end of 2011. Maruti gets 33 per cent of its total sales from outside the 40 main cities.

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Hyundai's new verna-cular

The initial stupendous response has taken everybody by surprise. Can it continue the dream run?

The premium midsize segment (Rs 6.5-10 lakh) has always been a tricky one for all car manufacturers. City was the first to crack it, though Honda’s flagship model has been facing some speed bumps of late, prompting last month’s decision to cut prices by as much as Rs 66,000.

The previous Hyundai Verna, showcased in India four years ago and positioned as a natural progression from the hugely successful Accent, also didn’t exactly set the midsize car sales charts afire.

Enter the new Verna Fluidic, which was launched in the middle of last month. the latest Verna, which looks nothing like its predecessor, was responsible for shoring up Hyundai’s fortunes in May in a market that saw almost all car majors posting a steep decline in sales.

According to data provided by SIAM, 4,357 Vernas were sold by the end of May, which was a terrific figure in the context of the sub-2000 reported by other midsize car makers. The only other model, which has been a reasonable success, is Volkswagen Vento at 3,000 units a month.

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