Ever since the discontinuation of the Hyundai Eon around October 2018, there has been a void in the budget car segment in Hyundai’s line up.
Hyundai is thus contemplating a low cost, stripped out version of their newly launched Santro. While the company believes that the overall market is upgrading with many buyers attaching importance to comfort and features over price, it does not wish to relinquish the first time buyer demographics that prefer a budget hatchback. This comes from the fact that the cumulative sales for budget hatchbacks namely Hyundai Eon, Maruti Suzuki WagonR, Maruti Suzuki Alto, and Renault Kwid stood at 4,70,782 units in the financial year ended April 2019.
Making a new small car from scratch shall entail a lot of investment in research and development, due to which a stripped out, low cost Santro is on the cards. The price reduction shall probably be achieved by eliminating some equipment and features while taking a hit on the profit margins as well. Given that Santro D-lite, the current entry-level variant comes without air conditioning, we can expect the stripped out version missing out on the dual tone black and beige interiors as well. However, the car will still have the cascading grille that makes the Santro look more stylish and aspirational than the previous model. It is expected to rival the Maruti Alto that is currently the bestseller and virtually uncontested in the budget car segment.
The Hyundai Santro retails for Rs. 3.90 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
