Hyundai to replace Santro with i10 in taxi markets

Earlier this year we had reported that Hyundai was planning to discontinue the Santro hatchback in India. The sharp dip in its sales figures in November 2014 has indicated that the company is indeed planning to phase the car out.

The Santro had become popular with black-and-yellow taxi drivers in Mumbai, with 20,000-25,000 drivers migrating to it from the old Premier Padmini. With the car on its way out, Hyundai has announced that it plans to introduce the i10 hatchback in the taxi markets of Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata in the coming weeks.

Hyundai is planning to offer the i10 taxi model with a CNG option, where the CNG kit will be retro-fitted in the car and not factory-fitted. The taxi variant will also be stripped of features such as power steering and air-conditioning.

The introduction of the i10 as a taxi comes at a time when Mumbai is gearing up to issue 7,843 taxi permits over the next 6 months.

Other players rumoured to be trying to get into the taxi market include Maruti Suzuki with the Ritz and Tata Motors with the Indica.

Source: Economic Times