Hyundai Motor unveils Alcazar SUV

South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL) forayed into the premium 6/7 seater sport utility vehicle (SUV) segment with the introduction of Alcazar.

It also plans to introduce third shift at Sriperumbudur unit from Monday onwards.

“This new product is wholly designed and developed in India at a cost of ₹650 crore,” said Tarun Garg, director, sales, marketing and service, HMIL. It had an indigenisation level of 90%, he said.

“Initially, it will cater to the Indian market. In the last 10 days, it secured 4,000 bookings,” he added. “Alcazar will fortify our leadership position in the SUV segment and perfectly complement our line-up of Venue, Creta, Kona Electric and Tucson,” said S.S. Kim, MD & CEO. “India is the on cusp of SUV revolution. In the last five years, SUVs’ overall contribution to market increased from 13.5% in 2015 to 29% in 2020 and in the first five months of 2021 at 35%. Last year, HMIL had 25% market hare and SUV contributed45% to overall portfolio,” he said.

Asserting that they were number one SUV maker in 2020 with Creta, Venue, Kona and Tucson, He said Alcazar, a segment creator was the fifth product in HMIL’s stable. It comes with host of security features.

Talking about the booking pattern, he said about 55% of the bookings were for diesel engines, 45% for 2.0 litres petrol engine, 50% for manual transmission and 60% for 6-seater SUVs.The SUV is priced upwards of ₹16.53 lakh for diesel engines and ₹16.30 lakh for petrol engines. It will have a waiting period of 6 to 8 weeks.

To a question about the production numbers, he said that it would be decided depending upon the demand.

On the production ramp up, he said that HMIL would resume third shift at Sriperumbudur unit from Monday as it expects 75% of the demand to return for the automobile industry by end June and 80-90% by August/September.

On the electric car, he said that a mass-market product would be introduced in three years.