It has sold over 9 million units and surpassed the 3 million vehicle export milestone in 2020. On the short-term outlook for the India market, he said: “We are cautiously optimistic, we are looking forward to returning to 2018 sales volume and Indian market has a great growth potential. We can think of new vehicle as overall economic condition is improving.” According to Kim, car owners are looking for updated and new vehicles, “so we are expecting car sales, but still, we are cautiously optimistic”. Besides, he cited that Indian consumer is evolving in terms of the income level as well as the aspirations. “When we look at FY2020, we saw two big changes segment wise that have happened. One being the SUV as a total percentage of the sales has increased from 25 to 29 per cent.”

“The second change is the growth in premium compact has happened from 12.3 to 13 per cent, these are two big changes show us clearly that the customer is evolving.” Last month, the company’s total sales grew by 15.6 per cent to 60,105 units from 52,002 units sold during January 2020. In the domestic market the sales grew by 23.8 per cent to 52,005 units from 42,002 units sold in the corresponding period of last year.

The wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) entered India in 1996 with its first plant coming up in May of the same year in Tamil Nadu.

—By Rohit Vaid