In recent times the mild hybrid technology has been gaining popularity in the Indian market. India being a price sensitive market has always lured buyers with impressive fuel efficient numbers and low cost of ownership. Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest automaker is the first one to introduce the mild diesel hybrid technology for the Ciaz sedan. Following suit, Japanese automaker Honda will also be introducing the Accord hybrid later this year.
Hyundai Motors, a strong competitor in the Indian market, has revealed its plans to introduce mild hybrid technology in its cars for India in the future. Mr. Y K Koo, Managing Director and CEO, Hyundai Motor India Limited revealed that the company will analyse the Indian market prior to launching any mild hybrid based model in India. The technology is likely to be introduced in the mid-level models first and gradually be offered in higher models.
In the international market Hyundai has been successful with its hybrid/fuel cell vehicles like Sonata hybrid, Sonata Plug-in and the Tucson fuel cell models in the international market. Though these models will not make it to India anytime soon, we can expect to see surprises with the current line up in the future.
As there are no immediate plans from Hyundai to introduce hybrid cars in the country, we will have to please ourselves with the fuel efficient petrol and diesel line-up from the Korean automaker in India. The automaker has also revealed that the new Tucson will be introduced during the upcoming festive season in the country, while the Grand i10 facelift is due for launch sometime later in 2017.
