Hyundai Motor car sales hit record in India for 1st half

Hyundai Motor Co. delivered its record-high number of cars in India during the first six months of this year but lost share in the fiercely competitive third-largest global auto market, where it is seeking to go public for deeper penetration.

According to data released by India’s Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) on Sunday, South Korea’s biggest finished car maker delivered 272,207 passenger cars in the South Asian country from January to June this year, up 2% from the same period last year.

The figure is the highest ever passenger car deliveries by Hyundai Motor India, the Korean carmaker’s Indian operation, in the country for the first half of the year.

Thanks to the upbeat sales, the Korean car brand ranked second in the Indian passenger car market with a 13.8% share, following No. 1 Maruti Suzuki India, the Indian subsidiary of Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp., with 40.8%.

Tata Motors Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp. came in third and fourth, with shares of 13.6% and 5.8%, respectively.

Its Korean sibling Kia Corp. sold 112,844 units in the same period, down 0.8% from a year ago and accounting for the fifth-largest share.

INDIA, FIERCE BATTLEGROUND FOR GLOBAL CAR MAKERS

Despite increased car deliveries, Hyundai Motor’s share in the Indian passenger car market declined as major global automakers are upping the ante to take the lead in the world’s No. 3 car market.

Sandwiched between top seller Maruti Suzuki and its fast followers, the Korean carmaker saw a steady decline in its market share for the first-half-year period in the past few years -- from 17% in 2021 to 14.4% in 2022 and 14.1% in 2023, according to FADA.  

The third-largest car seller Tata Motors controlled 9% of the Indian car market in 2021 but has narrowed its gap with Hyundai Motor to a mere 0.2 percentage point this year.

In January and March, the Indian rival’s passenger car sales outpaced even those of the Korean brand.

Toyota Motor is also ascending fast. Its shipments more than doubled to about 114,000 cars in the first half of this year from the same period of 2021.  

CHANCE TO WIDEN THE GAP

Facing the rapid rise of global and local rivals in India, Hyundai Motor is also ratcheting up the stakes to deepen its penetration into the world’s most populous country.

In August last year, it took over General Motors Co.’s car manufacturing plant in India, which will be used to produce Hyundai Motor’s India-dedicated electric vehicles.

The Korean automaker currently operates two plants in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and one in Talegaon, Maharashtra, where the former GM plant is.

After operating in India for nearly three decades, Hyundai Motor’s Indian operation now plans to go public in the South Asian country.

With the proceeds from its first-ever initial public offering of an overseas operation, Hyundai Motor plans to significantly ramp up its annual production capacity in India to elevate the country as its new global manufacturing hub.

According to a prospectus filed by Hyundai Motor, its Indian unit hopes to raise up to $3 billion from the IPO, which is expected to be India’s biggest-ever listing.

Last year, the Korean carmaker announced a plan to invest 200 billion Indian rupees ($2.45 billion) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu over the next decade. Including Kia’s, the total investment in their Indian operations is earmarked at $4 billion.

In January of this year, Hyundai Motor also signed a memorandum of understanding with the state of Maharashtra to invest 70 billion Indian rupees to expand and upgrade its Indian car manufacturing plant in Talegaon.

It announced a plan to increase its annual production capacity to 1 million units in India this year after churning out 765,000 units last year.

Write to Jung-Eun Shin at newyearis@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.