Riding the surging wave of demand for both midsize and compact SUVs, Hyundai Motor India has recorded its best-ever domestic market sales of 614,721 units in FY2024, an increase of 8.31% over FY2023’s 567,546 units. This is the best performance by the Korean auto major since it entered the Indian market in 1998.
Demand for the company’s overall passenger vehicle range continues to be powered by the Creta midsize SUV and the recently launched Exter compact SUV. Like the other leading PV makers in India, SUVs are the key growth drivers for Hyundai whose SUV line-up comprises the Creta, Venue, Alcazar, Exter and the Tucson along with the Ioniq 5 and Kona electric SUVs.
According to the company, the Creta, Exter, Ioniq 5 SUVs and the Aura sedan registered their highest ever annual numbers. As per industry data for the April 2023-February 2024 period, Hyundai’s top selling SUVs were the Creta (146,315 units), Venue (119,281 units), Exter (62,826 units in 8 months since launch) and the Alcazar (19,333 units). Their numbers will increase with the March 2024 wholesales. This performance has meant that the Creta, Venue and Exter were ranked fourth, seventh and 15th in the Top 20 UVs chart for the first 11 months of FY2024.
February 2024 saw the Creta surpass the one-million cumulative sales milestone since the midsize SUV’s launch in July 2015, news which Autocar Professional broke in its sales analysis on February 18. Priced at Rs 11 lakh, the new Creta costs Rs 80,000 more than the pre-facelift model and has already received over 60,000 bookings.
Hyundai has also gained from strong demand for the Exter compact SUV, which has received over 100,000 bookings, creditable given that this new model is part of an ultra-competitive sub-segment.
Hyundai averaged domestic market monthly sales of 51,226 units in FY2024 versus 47,295 units in FY2023 and hit the 600,000 mark for the first time.
A look at the company’s performance over the past 12 months reveals that Hyundai surpassed the 50,000-unit sales mark for eight months, and averaged monthly sales of 51,226 units compared to 47,295 units in FY2023. Hyundai opened 2024 with best-ever monthly sales of 57,115 units, which could be put down to the launch of the new Creta that month.
A deep dive into sales data for the past 11 fiscals reveals that Hyundai has bounced back after the Covid-impacted FY2020 and FY2021. FY2023’s 567,546 units marked a return to pre-pandemic numbers and FY2024 has seen it surpass the 600,000-units milestone for the first time.
Hyundai Motor India also exported 163,155 units overseas, which is a 6.7% YoY increase (FY2023: 153,019 units). This takes the company’s combined domestic market and export sales total to 777,876 units, up 8% YoY (FY2023: 720,565 units).
Commenting on the sales performance in FY2024, Tarun Garg, COO, Hyundai Motor India, said, “The FY2024 sales number of 777,000 is a testimony to the great acceptance of our diverse product line-up with 8% year-on-year growth in total sales. In the domestic market, HMIL sales surged by 8.3% and are the highest sales reported by HMIL since inception. In 2023-24, we launched many new models as well as product upgrades including the Exter, new Creta, Creta N Line, new i20 and introduced ADAS in the Venue and Venue N Line.”