SUVs eating market of hatchbacks, may continue to do so: Hyundai India COO

For HMIL, the SUVs contribute around 71 per cent to its total sales

Compact sports utility vehicles (SUVs) are cannibalising the share of hatchbacks and small cars in the Indian automobile market. The segment has grown to around one-lakh units a month in October this year, from around 86,000 same month last year, Tarun Garg, Chief Operating Officer and Whole-Time Director, Hyundai Motor India (HMIL), said.

In October this year, the total hatchback vehicle sales contributed 20.4 per cent to the overall passenger vehicle sales, which is down from 22.4 per cent in October sales last year.

“In the last seven years, SUV demand has grown consistently, and it is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11 per cent between 2022 and 2026. And, within the SUV market, the compact SUVs have emerged as a major growth driver, and currently, it contributes to 41 per cent of the overall SUV sales,” Garg said adding that currently SUV (whether compact or mid or premium) as a segment contributes 57 per cent to the overall passenger vehicles sales in the country.

Since the SUV is the flavour of the market right now, there are 64 models of SUVs in the 43-lakh Indian passenger vehicles industry, out of which 54 are mass market and premium SUVs, while the rest 10 are luxury SUVs.

Total sales

For HMIL currently, the SUVs contribute around 71 per cent to its total sales, and it is expected to contribute more than 80 per cent by 2030 when it will also add the multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) into its portfolio.

According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the total SUV wholesales (dispatches to dealers) in India grew by more than 13 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 4,84,283 units in September-October this year as compared with 4,27,115 units in the same period last year.

Out of these, the compact SUV segment grew by around 14 per cent y-o-y to 2,33,762 units during these two months as compared with 2,05,585 units in September-October 2024.

Meanwhile, HMIL on Tuesday launched the all-new Venue compact SUV priced between ₹8lakh and ₹15.51 lakh as introductory prices (ex-showroom), till December 31.

Hyundai has invested ₹1,500 crore to develop the next-gen Venue, and will only be produced at the company’s newly commissioned Pune-based facility. Currently, the Pune plant has a capacity of 1.70 lakh units a year which is slated to have an installed production capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum by 2028.

Introduced in 2019, HMIL has sold around seven-lakh units of the Venue so far.

Published on November 4, 2025