Hyundai’s Verna Will Chase City & Fusion

[tsreekaranrao]

Hyundai’s Verna Will Chase City & Fusion


Launch Likely In The Third Quarter of 2006; Accent Likely To Be Slotted At C-Segment Entry Level





HYUNDAI Motor, India’s second largest passenger car maker, may follow a market strategy similar to the Ford India formula for positioning its new mid-size sedan Verna, tipped for third quarter launch this year in India. Sources said the Accent was likely to be placed at the entry level of the C-segment while the Verna will be locked in direct challenge with the likes of Honda City and Ford Fusion, just below Hyundai’s premium mid-size offering, Elantra.
Hyundai is also likely to create some buzz at the premium hatchback car level by rolling out a diesel powered Getz. This car may be ahead of any model in the same class which may be launched by Maruti in 2007 when the latter’s diesel engine plant gets commissioned. Hyundai is said to be mulling a 1.5 litre CRDi (common rail direct injection) diesel engine for the Getz, sources said.
The petrol variant, which has been selling about 1200-1300 units a month, may get a leg up with the diesel option. When Ford launched the Fiesta recently, it phased out the top end models of Ikon, its josh machine, and left only the 1.3 litre entry level variant in place. Using this strategy, Ford made way for Ikon’s successor without losing out on the numbers that the josh machine continues to generate in the market.
Hyundai, it is learnt, will follow a similar road map. Accent has been a successful offering from the Korean stable (averaged about 2,200 units per month), but Honda City has a significant lead over it in the market. With Verna, its more spacious and powerful successor, Hyundai can adapt a similar formula and give room for both the cars. The Verna is likely to be available with a 1.8 litre petrol engine although a 1.6 litre option cannot be ruled out.
However, Accent will still be positioned above other C segment entrants like Tata Indigo and Maruti Esteem. Since Honda City has clearly established that good numbers — 3,000 plus per month — exist at that price segment, between Accent and Verna, Hyundai may be looking at over 3,000 units a month. General Motors is also trying to pit its new mid-size car Aveo against the Fiesta. With two to three variants, it hopes to cover the entire C-segment belt.

[tsreekaranrao]

article taken from economic times

Doesnt the car look like the new accent which was supposed to replace the older one

[deepakhon]

Originally Posted by tsreekaranrao

Doesnt the car look like the new accent which was supposed to replace the older one

As per my knowledge, it indeed is the new accent. Hyundai is trying to play the game Maruti (800 and Alto) and Skoda (Octavia and Laura) are playing.

[nitrous]

Verna will bridge the tiny gap between Accent and the Elantra.

Hyundai will dominate the market with their offerings with these 3 cars. Cars for anyone at anyprice.Starting with the Santro Xing, Getz,Accent,Verna, Elantra,Sonata Embera, Tucson, Terracan.

Prices starting at 3.5Lacs to 22 Lakhs.

[Steeroid]

This is disappointing....shows how manufacturers are ditching the C-segment, which is pretty much the entry-level sedan segment. First Ford, then Hyundai. This leaves the C-segment pretty much to Tata and Maruti, since I doubt if anyone would want to buy a hand-me-down, which is what the current models would become after their upgrades go upmarket.

Everyone will now end up fighting for the 2400-odd car Honda City market, leaving the much larger 5000+ C-segment for ageing cars.

I hope somebody gets the hint and launches a BRAND NEW car in that segment - that will shake this lot out of their complacence.

[tsk1979]

Elantra costs 6.99 ex showroom. So if semi loaded verna costs 6-6.5 it will compete against elantra. And there does accent go? Will they sell the crdi still at 6.8lac?
And 1.5 litre crdi for Getz? That will make more power than the current crdi.

Confusion. Lets see what hyundai actually comes up with. They have shaken the market with all their launches except the elantra and I hope its was an exception and not the indication to the future.
As for getz. If hyundai launches a crdi at a price tag not more than 50000 to the equivalent petrol, this will be our new addition

[tsreekaranrao]

@Nitrous:The hyundai dealers told me that they have stopped importing the terracan

[himanshugoswami]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

I hope somebody gets the hint and launches a BRAND NEW car in that segment - that will shake this lot out of their complacence.

Mahindra is planning to do just that with the Logan.

Plus, the fiesta 1.4 can also be considered in this segment.

[Joz]

Steeroid, I am not sure what you mean there. Look at the numbers. In Jan 2006, City+Fiesta put together about 7,850 units. With increasing purchasing power the earlier C segment is essentially the current C + segment (City, Fiesta). People upgrading from existing C segment (Accent, Ikon) and B segment cars will look at the C+ range and that base is fairly huge.

Entry midsize (C) will slug it out among themselves and also the B+ segments (Getz, Aveo). If Corsa is not discontinued we still have Corsa, Flair, Esteem, Indigo and the Baleno in the C segment. Essentially the old generation models which still seem to be selling decent numbers.

Wouldn't manufacturer margins be higher in the C+ segment?

[shuvc]

Well if they must have all the models then IMO the new line-up would be :

Accent GLE 1.5 - 5 L
Getz CRDi - 5.5 L
Verna 1.6 , low end - 5.75 L
Verna 1.6 , high end - 6.5 L
Verna 1.5 CRDi , single model - 7 L
edit : or a 1.8 CRDi at 7.5 L
Elantra Base - 7 L
.....

Discontinue
Accent GLS 1.6
Accent CRDi
Viva - all models
Launch an updated Elantra and hike prices slightly from current levels.

edit : as is quite evident. There's more to the story than the Verna. There just isn't space enuff for all these models, with the current Elantra pricing.

[Boom Shiva]

A 1.8 litre in an Accent-sized car sounds promising. Hope they don't chicken out and give only 1.6 as an option.

[GTO]

Apparently, the Verna is a HUGE leap forward in ride and handling characteristics for Hyundai. Lets wait and watch for a proper test drive.

Buttttttttttttttttt I am totally with TSK where Hyundai is doing a Maruti. At a 7 lac price, they will have the Elantra, Accent CRDi and now the Verna.

This leaves the C-segment pretty much to Tata and Maruti, since I doubt if anyone would want to buy a hand-me-down, which is what the current models would become after their upgrades go upmarket.

Everyone will now end up fighting for the 2400-odd car Honda City market, leaving the much larger 5000+ C-segment for ageing cars.

Steeroid, I think GM India and Mahindra have been reading your posts.

GTO

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Joz

[left] In Jan 2006, City+Fiesta put together about 7,850 units.

Remember that Fiesta deliveries were mostly delayed. What you see in the Jan figures is what we saw with Toyota Innova figures for Aug/Sep last year when they did bigger numbers than C-segment cars because of the delivery backlog of high-end variants that had been cleared.

Honda does an average of about 2,400 nos a month with the City. It is this pie that most manufacturers now want to eat out of. Assuming that new models drive up volumes, it may touch 3k to 4k, but not beyond that. I am talking about sustainable figures, not those immediately following the launch of a new model.

The now-neglected C-segment, meanwhile, has been doing much higher volumes than that with models that were ageing. In my opinion, there are more numbers to be made there (at a lower margin, agreed) as this is the ENTRY LEVEL segment. How many people would go straight from a hatch to a 7-lakh sedan?

I would love to be proved wrong on this one, which would mean that people can now afford 7-lakh cars as a matter of course. However, I'm skeptical of this new trend. I still feel they should renew their offerings in the C-segment instead of creating a neither-here-nor-there segment comprising of essentially C-segment cars pretending to be more than what they are.

Honda got away with the City priced at that level for three reasons: 1. The Honda Brand, 2. The City sub-brand and 3. A car that is marginally bigger than others. Neither the Fiesta nor the new Accent can aspire to get a slice of that action for any long period of time. Besides, there is the VERY real danger of D- segmenters like the Optra and the Elantra losing numbers and reducing the prices of their base models to compete @ Rs.7 lakhs - this would effectively kill the high-end variants of the Fiesta and Verna as the D- segment comprises of bigger cars.

IMHO, Hyundai will be commiting Hara-Kiri by launching the new Accent at City prices. They HAVE to replace the existing Accent, and if I were Hyundai I would at least look at bringing in the new Kia Rio to replace the Accent while pricing the Verna (huh?) at City levels.

PS: I also did some reading on the Verna launch, and came across claims that the Verna will be a CBU. Wont that drive up prices? Or does Hyundai get some sort of rebate on CBUs for its exports? They have reportedly exported 100,000 cars from India last year - the largest number of car exports till date. Perhaps that will give them enough rebates to bring in the 'Verna' at lower duties?

The other big news is that the Verna will probably be sold as a sedan AND a coupe. That will be a first for India, but will it have any takers - 1.8 litre engine or not?

Or is this an image-building exercise for Hyundai, seeing that they're looking at volumes of 1,000 cars a month?

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by tsreekaranrao

@Nitrous:The hyundai dealers told me that they have stopped importing the terracan

Huh! which dealer told you so? In yesterday's TOI (Wheels) there was a huge ad for Laxmi Hyundai. It had Terracan standing next to the Tucson in the Hyundai line up of cars.

[tsreekaranrao]

Originally Posted by Zappo

Huh! which dealer told you so? In yesterday's TOI (Wheels) there was a huge ad for Laxmi Hyundai. It had Terracan standing next to the Tucson in the Hyundai line up of cars.

There was this auto show by hyundai people and a personnel of LAKSHMI HYUNDAI said that they have stopped importing the terracan and are clearing off the existing stock