With best-ever calendar year sales of 605,2429 units, Hyundai Motor India’s share of its parent company’s global sales of 4.14 million passenger vehicles in 2024 has risen to its highest level yet of 14.61 percent, reinforcing India’s strong position as a key growth market for the Korean automaker.
04 Jan 2025 | 14475 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
Hyundai Motor India, which registered its best-ever annual wholesales of 605,429 units in CY2024, has also recorded its highest-ever share of its parent company’s global sales for the year. Hyundai Motor Co sold a total of 4.14 million passenger vehicles in CY2024, down 1.78% year on year, which makes ...
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Hyundai Motor India, which registered its best-ever annual wholesales of 605,429 units in CY2024, has also recorded its highest-ever share of its parent company’s global sales for the year. Hyundai Motor Co sold a total of 4.14 million passenger vehicles in CY2024, down 1.78% year on year, which makes its Indian business arm’s contribution even more strategic in Hyundai’s global scheme of things.
India, the jewel in Hyundai’s crown, continues to be a key contributor to the Hyundai Motor Group and is the second-best performing global market for the Korean chaebol after the home market of South Korea. In CY2024, Hyundai sales in Korea at 705,010 units were down 7.5% (CY2023: 762,077 units). The Hyundai Motor Group’s bullishness on India can be seen in its Indian arm, Hyundai Motor India being recently listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
A deep dive into Hyundai’s global and its India market sales reveals that Hyundai Motor India’s share of Hyundai’s global sales has steadily increased over the years – from 12% in CY2018 to 13% in CY2021. 14% in CY2022 and now at its highest level at 14.61% in CY2024 (see seven-year data table below).
India: the jewel in Hyundai's crown
India, currently among the world’s most promising automotive markets, ranking third behind China and the US, is the jewel in Hyundai Motor Co's crown. The Indian car and SUV market, which recorded sales of 4.10 million units in CY2023 (up 8.15% YoY) and 4.21 million units in FY2024 (up 8.4% YoY), is expected to clock total wholesales in the region of 4.3 million passenger vehicles in CY2024. The growing shift from hatchbacks and sedans to SUVs over the past few years has seen the share of utility vehicles jump to 60% (2.35 million UVs) from 33% (984,801 UVs) in CY2019.
As it is for the leading PV manufacturers in India, SUVs continue to provide the bulk of the sales for Hyundai Motor India which retails 10 models in India — two hatchbacks (Grand i10 Nios, i20), two sedans (Aura, Verna) and six SUVs (Creta, Venue, Alcazar, Exter, and Tucson along with the all-electric Ioniq 5). According to the company, the contribution of its SUV portfolio was the highest yet in CY2024 – 67.6% – which works out to around 409,270 units.
Creta: the growth engine for Hyundai in India
The Hyundai Creta – India’s best-selling midsize SUV – sold a total of 186,919 units in CY2024 to be the best-selling Hyundai product and accounted for 31% of overall PV sales for the company.
While the model-wise sales splits for December 2024 (other than the Creta) are not yet available, the Venue (107,554 units) and the Exter (79,098 units) were the No. 2 and No. 3 best-sellers in the first 11 months of CY2024 and accounted for 33% of the 563,221 passenger vehicles Hyundai sold. The No. 4 and No. 5 toppers for Hyundai in January-November 2024 are the two hatchbacks – Grand i10 (56,531 units) and i20 Elite (56,609 units) – followed by the Aura compact sedan (51,286 units) and the new Verna sedan (16,241 units). While the Tucson SUV has sold 1,510 units, the all-electric Ioniq 5 clocked 504 units in the first 11 months of 2024.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor India is fast upping the ante on manufacturing capacity. The company, whose existing 830,000 units per annum capacity at its plants in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu has been stretched to accommodate growing domestic and export market demand, completed the acquisition of GM’s plant in Talegaon, Maharashtra in January 2024. The first product to roll out from the completely refurbished facility will be a highly localised hybrid SUV in the second half of FY2026.
Hyundai has committed to invest Rs 6,000 crore in Maharashtra to upgrade and refurbish the Talegaon plant, which had a production capacity of 130,000 units. That’s not all. Hyundai has also committed a mega investment of Rs 26,000 crore in Tamil Nadu over a decade, which will go towards new product development, particularly EVs and also fresh production capacity.
India's passenger vehicle market is expected to exceed 7 million units by 2030. Reason enough why the Hyundai Motor Group is pressing the accelerator to achieve speedier growth through its two vehicle manufacturing arms – Hyundai Motor India and Kia India. In CY2025, Hyundai Motor India’s strategic future growth plan kicks off with the all-new Creta Electric, the zero-emission avatar of the Creta which offers two battery options and up to 473km range. Bookings for the Creta Electric have opened ahead of its official launch on January 17 at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo in New Delhi.
Hyundai Motor Co has targeted global sales of 4,174,000 passenger vehicles in CY2025, up 0.77% YoY. This comprises Korea market sales of 710,000 units (up 0.70% YoY) and overseas sales of 3,464,000 units (up 0.79% YoY). Clearly, the focus will be even more on its Indian operations to deliver better than in previous years.
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