Hyundai Motor Company is on the verge of surpassing 10 million units in cumulative sales 30 years after entering India.
According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on the 11th, Hyundai Motor Company began producing and selling the Santro at its Chennai plant in India in 1998 and has sold a cumulative 9,884,960 units in the Indian market as of the third quarter of this year.
If this trend continues, cumulative sales are expected to exceed 10 million units within the year.
Hyundai Motor Company, which established a local corporation in 1996, has grown steadily in the Indian market, with cumulative sales exceeding 1 million units in 2007 and 5 million units in 2017.
The first model, Santro, was so popular that it was called ‘India’s national compact car’ and led the successful establishment of Hyundai Motor Company.
Hyundai Motor Company, which ranked second in market share in the first year, expanded its sales base by successively introducing light and compact car models such as the i10, i20, and Verna.
In July 2015, Creta, the first local strategic sports utility vehicle (SUV) model, was introduced to the Indian market.
Creta is a model developed to meet the needs of Indian customers, such as large family culture and poor road conditions. Immediately after its launch, it ranked first in monthly sales in the Indian SUV market for three consecutive months, and was selected as the '2016 Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY)' with over 40,000 units sold in the first year alone.
Hyundai Motor Company subsequently expanded its SUV lineup by launching the Venue (2019), the three-row SUV Alcazar (2021), and the entry-level SUV Exeter (2023). Last year, it launched Creta EV, its first locally produced electric vehicle, and currently has a total of eight SUV lineups.
Thanks to its diverse SUV lineup, annual sales exceeded 500,000 units for the first time in 2016, and recorded the highest annual market share (17.4%) in 2020. In 2024, it sold 605,433 units, recording the highest annual sales volume since entering India.
The proportion of SUVs has exceeded half of total sales as of 2021. Last year, 398,937 SUVs were sold, accounting for nearly 70% of total sales. It was towed by three local strategic SUVs, including Exeter, Creta, and Alcazar.
Of the 471,724 units sold in India through the third quarter of this year, 316,026 units (67.0%) were SUVs.
Jose Munoz, CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, said at the 2026 CEO Investor Day last August, “We will increase the proportion of SUVs in Indian sales to 80% by 2030.”
Hyundai Motor Company plans to expand its lineup by launching a new model of the compact SUV Bayon in India this year.
The production base will also be strengthened.
Hyundai Motor Company began full-scale operation of its new Pune plant (170,000 units) following Chennai Plants 1 and 2 (824,000 units), bringing its total production capacity to 1 million units in India.
Hyundai Motor Company plans to expand the production capacity of its Pune plant to 250,000 units in 2028 and 320,000 units in 2030, increasing its total production capacity in India to more than 1.1 million units per year.
In addition, the plan is to strengthen cost competitiveness by raising the localization rate of parts to over 90% by 2030 and to foster India as a global export hub by expanding the share of exports to up to 30%.
