Hyundai Motors plans to take on arch rival Maruti in the small car space. The Korean major, which revealed that it is developing a new car in the 800 cc segment, hopes to roll it out within three to four years.
Hyundai Motor India managing director H S Lheem said the model woulld be smaller than the Santro and is being conceived in Hyderabad and Namyang in South Korea.
Lheem brushed aside speculation of competition with Maruti 800, saying "the Maruti car is an old one."
Also, a new i10 model would be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show next month. He said that the small car would be introduced in India by December and exported later.
Lheem said the company, which had a 17 per cent market share in the passenger car segment in 2007, is eyeing 22 per cent in 2008. "We want to be number one in India," he averred.
The 'i10' is now logging an average sales of over 20,000 a month and has been billed as Hyundai's most successful car, upstaging even the basic car from its stable – the Santro, the MD said.
On the other hand, domestic sales to export ratio for i10 was 50:50. Lheem revealed the company would invest around Rs 200 crore for creating a new stamping facility at its Chennai plant for exporting CKD components to Taiwan and Malaysia.
Hyundai also made it clear that it has no intention to compete with Tata's small car the Nano.
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