When Hyundai India pulled the wraps off the big volume puller small car. the Eon hatchback, and also announced that the bread and butter Santro Xing would continue to do duty alongside the Eon, many of us were surprised. While Maruti Suzuki regularly follows this practice, mostly to a successful end, only time will tell whether Hyundai India’s strategy will actually pay off. In a car market that is clearly in the throes of a slowdown, the Eon hasn’t exactly expanded Hyundai India’s market. Instead, the small car seems to have eaten up into the Santro Xing’s market share.
Here are a few numbers to back up this assertion of ours. In September, 2011, when Hyundai India began shipping out Eons to Hyundai dealerships across India anticipating stiff demand for the latest, sharply styled Hyundai small car, the numbers for the Eon read 7,188 units while that for the Santro Xing read 6,396 units. An average monthly figure of around 6,000 units is what the Hyundai Santro Xing has been selling for the last six months or so. In October however, Hyundai India sold 6,315 Eons while the Santro Xing’s numbers dipped very sharply, to 3,141 units.
Hyundai Santro Xing Fluidic Rendering
While it will take a month or two to assess the actual impact of the Eon’s launch affecting sales of the Santro Xing, our roving eye in the sky, EarthFusion, has come up with a render on how a Hyundai Santro Xing could look if Hyundai India decides to give it the Fluidic design treatment. Notably, Hyundai has done this before with the i10 Hatchback, whose only big design change was at the front end, where the Fluidic design grille was incorporated. All said, this render remains a purely speculative one at the moment although we wouldn’t too surprised if Hyundai decide to give the Santro Xing a final makeover before phasing out the model.
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