SUVs are not the domain of Hyundai in India. The Santa Fe is not a volume seller and Tucson in its previous tenure wasn't successful. Despite having a poor track of record in the SUV segment, Hyundai decided to launch Creta in July 2015. The result was staggering and the Creta has gone down well with the SUV loving customers in India.
Two years and a month down the line, domestic sales of the Hyundai Creta now crossed the magic number of two lakh, reports Autocar Professional. Average monthly sales of 10,000 units also indicate the demand of the SUV is still not fizzled out.
"We are delighted with the Creta crossing the 200,000 sales mark. What started with numbers of 6,000 units initially has seen a strong growth of reaching up to 10,000 monthly units in the present day, based on the strong credentials of the product and it being liked by customers. The demand for the crossover is consistent and we intend to increase our supplies to the dealers, so as to cut down on the waiting time, which currently ranges between 2-3 weeks," said Rakesh Srivastava, director (Sales & Marketing), Hyundai Motor India to the publication.
The month of July 2017 marked the highest monthly sales of Creta with 10,556 buyers driving home the Hyundai SUV. The spike in sales has also been pushed by the GST implementation that saw a dip in the tax rate for SUVs. Hyundai reduced the price of Creta soon after GST implementation.
The SUV crossed one lakh sales within eight months. The waiting period then was nearly 10 months and Hyundai ramped up capacity by 30 percent. With its stellar sales performance, the Creta also became the second most sold UV in India in 2015-16 after the Mahindra Bolero.
The success of Creta prompted Hyundai to relaunch Tucson last year and the SUV line of the company is set to get an entry level model in 2018-19.