Hyundai Motor India begins exporting its Venue SUV to South Africa

Hyundai Motor India has announced that it has begun exporting its Venue compact SUV to South Africa. The first consignment of 1,400 Venues, which marks the largest single overseas shipment of Venues till now. departed from the Chennai Port earlier today. The Venue is slated to be launched in South Africa on December 2.

In the ongoing fiscal year till now (April-October 2019), the Korean carmaker has shipped a total of 1,589 made-in-Sriperumbudur Venues (see data table below), with the 585 units in September 2019 being the highest. The export markets include are Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius and Seychelles. Currently, the 1.0 Turbo GDi with 7 DCT (Right-Hand Drive) model is being exported to all countries, including South Africa. The LHD (Left-Hand Drive) model is being developed and is expected to be exported to the Gulf, African and Latin American regions.

Venue Exports
June: 1
July: 232
August: 255
September: 585
October: 516
Total: 1,589

Hyundai currently No 1 made-in-India PV exporter
The growing demand from overseas markets for the Venue, among other made-in-India Hyundai cars, particularly the Verna, is bound to help the company further accelerate its export performance. In the April-October 2019 period, Hyundai Motor India has exported a total of 116,900 units (17.32% YoY growth). This places it comfortably ahead of FY2019 PV export leader Ford India, which has exported 79,021 units (-11.44%) in the same period.

As the Indian market continues to witness a slowdown which has stretched for over 12 months now, Hyundai Motor India is driving an aggressive export strategy designed to buffer a downturn in the domestic market. 

On September 24, 2019, the company hosted a two-day International Partner’s Meet in New Delhi, which included a track day in New Delhi at the Buddh International Circuit. Partners representing Hyundai from several countries including South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Vietnam, Chile, Peru and Columbia were present along with representatives from new markets like Ethiopia, Zambia and Ghana which are being explored for the export of the Atos (Santro in India). The Hyundai dealer partners saw and got familiar with the company’s latest product line-up – the Venue, Grand i10 Nios and Atos.

Stanley Anderson ( Director, HASA) Hyundai distributor in South African market, had said, “The International Partners Meet 2019 as it gave us comprehensive and complete perspective of HMIL global operations. It has been producing world-class products from its factory in Chennai and our customers are very happy with quality and durability of Made-in- India cars. We are proud to collaborate with HMIL for this journey of togetherness and plan to launch Atos and Venue in South Africa in December 2019. We hope that these models will enhance our product portfolio with their distinctive styling and excellent quality and will prove to be a bestseller in their segment.” 

Also read: Hyundai Venue races past 50,000 sales in 6 months

Surging demand for Venue sees Hyundai grow its UV market share

Hyundai races ahead of Ford with PV exports in H1, FY2020