Hyundai Santa Fe could be assembled in India from CKD kits soon!

2011 Hyundai Santa Fe Crossover

The 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe, no doubt a very capable crossover with a bunch of class leading features has enough and more to be a terrific competitor to the segment leader, the mighty Toyota Fortuner, but for the high price at which the Santa Fe Crossover is being sold in India. Plummeting sales seems to have made Hyundai India do a rethink on the Hyundai Santa Fe’s career in India, which now could attain a different trajectory from being a brand builder to a decent volume puller.

Right before the launch, Team ICB had questioned Hyundai’s strategy of asking the Indian SUV buying populace to fork out a premium for the Santa Fe over the Toyota Fortuner and finally reality seems to be dawning on Hyundai, which though has a great product with class leading features, still has some way to go to match the street cred of a Toyota or Honda when it comes to premium products above the 20 Lakh rupee mark. To compete with the likes of the Fortuner and the Captiva, the Santa Fe might be assembled soon via the CKD route.

2011 Hyundai Santa Fe Crossover

For this, Hyundai might assemble the engine and gearbox of the Santa Fe in India as doing otherwise would require Hyundai to pay the recently elevated duty on CKD kits of 30% as opposed to the previous 10% levied on CKDs. If Hyundai India indeed adopts the strategy that BMW India has adopted for it’s CKD operations in India, we could very well see a sub 20 Lakh price mark for the Santa Fe Crossover, which, for the features it offers is a very good bargain when compared to other SUVs in the segment.

2011 Hyundai Santa Fe Crossover

Currently, Hyundai India is said to be homologating the body structure of the Hyundai Santa Fe at ARAI, which is a governmental certifying agency. Meanwhile, here’s what Hyundai India’s Sales and Marketing Director, Mr Arvind Saxena had to say about the Santa Fe’s local assembly.

Starting CKD operations for the Santa Fe is part of our plan. Typically, we would wait for volumes to touch at least 150 units a month for it to make sense economically. At present, we are doing about 100 units a month.We will look to service the second lots of bookings in the next 6-8 months. Our target is to sell about 1,400 units of the Santa Fe in a year’s time.

Via TheHinduBusinessLine

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