Automobile Blog

Hyundai to bring in LPG model of Santro this year

Hyundai Motors is going to increase the prices of its car models by 12 January. Mr Arvind Saxena senior vice-president, sales and marketing, Hyundai Motors India Ltd, said the company has decided to increase the price of most of its cars by Rs 5000. It includes ‘i10’ that was launched recently.

The company hopes to sell 5.3 lakh cars by 2008. The company said it would launch an LPG variant of the Santro by September to complement the CNG version.

“With rising crude prices, Santro LPG will provide a more economical option for our customers along with environment-friendly benefits,” Lheem said.

He said similar LPG variants would also be launched of other models like the Getz and Accent later this year, possibly by the third quarter. Hyundai is in talks with bus body-building firms to launch buses first. It will import the chassis and get the partner to assemble buses. He also said that “We will look to launch mid-size buses in the 25-seater category and large buses, initially:, and the “Trucks will follow later.”

Truck makers such as Volvo Daimler and Nissan Motor Co are eyeing India and China, where rapid growth and infrastructure spend is boosting truck sales.

Hyundai clocked a growth of 18 per cent during December 2007 in the domestic market. This year the company’s domestic capacity would also increase from 200,000 units to 250,000 units. Hyundai’s concept car ‘Veloster’ managed to grab some spotlight on Thursday, which was dominated by Tata’s Nano.