Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL) began exporting in 1999, when it shipped a batch of 20 cars to Nepal. Come today and the company is exporting over two million cars every year. In an exclusive interaction with The Dollar Business, Rakesh Srivastava, Sr. Vice President and Division Head (Sales & Marketing), HMIL, talks about the importance of the Indian automobile market in the global scheme of things.
TDB: After you took charge as the Senior Vice President in 2012, what have been some of the major changes in Hyundai’s export and marketing strategies? What is your vision for exports by the company?
Rakesh Srivastava (RS): I think the biggest change has been in terms of sharpening our focus on select export destinations. We geared our manufacturing units to serve the markets in Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia. The compact range of sedans and SUVs were the main offerings and we pioneered a range of sophistications from the engineering and design perspective. Europe and the rest of the Americas were no longer priority export regions for Hyundai India.
The second change was that we also strengthened our domestic product portfolio. There was a pronounced emphasis on premium designs and features to enhance the aspirational quotient of our products in India. Although we are India’s biggest exporter of passenger cars, we place a bigger importance on the domestic market. It is the domestic market that generates volumes and gives us economies of scale. The export vision is fairly simple – we want to gain a global edge through our exports.
TDB: You had an impressive sales growth of 15.1% y-o-y in FY2016. How has your sales been so far this year?
This story is from the November 2016 edition of The Dollar Business.
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This story is from the November 2016 edition of The Dollar Business.
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