In a free wheeling chat with Sourya Biswas, Hyundai Motors India's senior vice president marketing and sales, Arvind Saxena, outlined the company's future plans, and the performance the company's iconic car i10. (View exclusive domain-b video interview with Arvind Saxena)

Is the Tata small car a threat to Hyundai's pre-eminent position as the second-largest seller of cars in the Indian market?
Well, it is difficult to comment right now till we see the car on road and what it is. But, yes, I think it's a threat as well as a challenge for us, and also an opportunity from our side, because someone who drives a smaller-than-Santro car may eventually upgrade to our cars. We have cars for upgraders. People may buy that but eventually buy our cars later on.
 
''What India drives today, the world drives tomorrow'' – Hyundai recently showed this with the international launch of the i10 in India. Why the sudden change of heart after having handed down automobiles launched elsewhere to the Indian consumer?
Not a change of heart, in fact Hyundai has been the first company right from the beginning…we have been getting India almost the current technologies, current products, from all over the world, but what we realized that, now that India is such a large small-car market, and also our own commitment is far greater now in this market from the small car point of view, I thought it is time that it should be recognized by everyone and we made thus beginning to introduce the car first here and then the rest of the world.

How has been the response to the i10?
Very good, both I would say domestic as well as export markets…domestic so far, in a short time we have sold nearly 20,000 cars, and export as of today, I have almost 31,000 orders pending to be supplied, so it's a great response we have been getting. Also we have been recognized by all…we have been getting the Car of the Year awards, I think the car has really been liked by everyone.

You are exporting to countries, like…?
All over the world, I think. Eventually we'll cover almost 90 countries including Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South America….all over the world.

Now, Hyundai already had a premium hatchback with Getz and an entry-level hatchback with the Santro. What prompted the introduction of the i10? Won't it  adversely affect the previous two?
No, I think what we actually saw was an opportunity that many customers want to buy again and again a small car, a compact car….there we found a big opportunity that people may not eventually end up buying the same car again and again, but while he is happy with Santro, simply for the change he may look for something up….and so we thought of plugging that gap by introducing the i10.

And secondly, for the customers, who are looking for a more stylish, a more modern car, I think they have a good option today and we cover the full spectrum today in that segment with the Santro, the i10 and Getz at the upper end….eventually a wide choice for the customer ensuring that he doesn't go out of the showroom once he comes in.

The Santro has been an old warhorse. We see you have just released the Santro LPG. Do you have any other modifications of the Santro coming up in the future?
This was another opportunity that we saw. Today the customer is very happy with the quality and performance of the Santro, and we thought with our commitment to the green side of our environment, we thought LPG provides us that opportunity and decided to launch this.

We have unveiled it today and we will launch it in August or September, followed by Getz and Accent. So we will have the largest range in terms of LPG variants in passenger cars.

Moving aside from small cars, the SUV segment has seen several new launches recently with the new Endeavour, Vitara, Safari and the mHawk. What are Hyundai's plans for the Tucson?
Well right now we have the Tucson, and the other one that we have displayed here at the Auto Expo is the Santa Fe. We are comparing the customer responses to that, and maybe based on the responses and our cost expectations, and price expectations, by end of this month we will take a call whether to bring in Santa Fe or not.

The Sonata has always suffered from an image problem and low resale value. Is Hyundai doing anything to address that problem?
I think we have to improve the brand image, no doubt about it, and 2008 will see that. Whatever needs to be done we will do on that product.

(Also see: domain-b's exclusive video interview with Saxena)