Hyundai reviews light car options

Hyundai has confirmed it is evaluating the new i10 light car and i20 small car for introduction into Australia. The new models, both built in the company’s Chennai (India) plant, straddle the Getz light-segment car currently sold in Australia.

The i20 sits between the Getz and the i30 in size, but is styled in a more explicitly European mode. Although it would still be classified as a light car for VFACTS sales reporting, it actually sits on the fence between light and small cars, just as the Peugeot 207 does.

In fact, Kevin McCann, Hyundai's Director of Sales & Marketing, told the Carsales Network that Hyundai "benchmarked" the i20 against the French car.

The i10 is an altogether smaller car than either the i20 or the Getz, but offers some substance despite its size, according to McCann -- who compares it favourably with the Hyundai Atoz (a car never sold in Australia).

Oliver Mann, Hyundai's General Manager for Marketing, agrees that the i10 packs a lot into a tiny package.

"It's been designed from a deeply pragmatic point of view," he explains when the Carsales Network drew his attention to the car's rear-seat headroom, which is actually greater than the same dimension in the larger i20.

The i10 looks to be no larger than a Daihatsu Sirion and, as for the Japanese car, provides adult-sized seating for four. The luggage compartment appears roomier than some small cars. And even though the i10 ‘unveiled’ at Hyundai's new Macquarie Park (NSW) headquarters this week featured a space-saver tyre, there's undeniably room for a full-size spare (Mann says were the i10 to come to Australia, it would definitely be equipped with a conventional spare).

Hyundai's assessment of the current market situation appears confused because neither the i10 nor the i20 would necessarily replace the Getz directly -- and the Getz is not up for replacement in the immediate near future anyway.

"The answer on Getz at this stage is 'for the foreseeable future'," says Mann.

"There is no run-out point in our plan. The future of Getz would obviously need to be considered in the light of where we get to on i10 and i20. Ultimately, we're about selling cars and being successful in that segment -- where the real volume of Hyundai lies. Provisioning competitive product in that segment is obviously our lifeblood."

We take that to mean that Hyundai wouldn't just cancel the Getz -- unless there were something better available...

Even then, it's not impossible that Hyundai could sell both Getz and i20 in parallel, as the company does currently with Accent and Getz. In fact, the i10 (a 1.2 to 1.4-litre car) could replace the entry-level Getz and the 1.6-litre i20 could replace both upmarket Getz models and the Accent too.

Indeed, there are a number of different scenarios possible. For example, the i20 alone could change the Hyundai light car brand perception marginally, moving itself slightly upmarket of the Getz and taking Hyundai's brand image along with it. Meantime, the i10, in the current climate, might actually encourage more light car buyers to downsize further, when there has been no indication to date that Aussie buyers would accept cars much smaller than the current selection of light cars available.

Mann touches on this point when he refers to the "wider cross-section of buyers" in the light car segment these days. There are two obvious target demographics for the i10 -- the bowling club set and buyers of a second car for a young family. With Australian buyers setting their sights lower since fuel prices rose so dramatically last year, however, the i10 may appeal more to traditional light car buyers, such as young, single women, for instance.

One thing that seems apparent from discussing the two cars with Hyundai is that the talk mostly turns to the i10, leading us to believe that the i20 is a given and will replace the Getz in due course.

So can the i10 succeed in this market -- one that traditionally eschews such small cars?

With Toyota looking seriously at the iQ, Hyundai could get the jump and snatch market share by bringing the i10 to market first. It could conversely wait for Toyota to introduce the iQ, do the hard work establishing a presence in the sub-light car segment first and then introduce the i10 to reap the spoils.

Either option is dangerous, because how the market will react to such cars remains an unknown quantity, even with two well established brands making an effort to convince the buying public that these cars represent viable means of transport.

Still, Mann sounds upbeat about the i10's prospects in the local market. We put it to him that if Hyundai were seeking feedback from the media on these two cars -- and particularly the i10 -- then the company might be further along the track towards making a decision.

"We have done some research," Mann confirmed.

"It's probably fair to say -- not related to the clinic particularly -- that if there was no chance of the vehicle coming to Australia, we wouldn't be showcasing it to [journalists]. Obviously part of that is based on supply, spec and price -- and part of it's based on feedback to date.

"[Showcasing the cars] is to gauge the feedback from the media... and that will help guide us as to the acceptance of the vehicle in Australia."

"People have been very pleasantly surprised," he says of the market research clinic for the i10, but provides a cautiously optimistic view of its chances here to balance the clinic's output.

"The history of cars that are smaller in the light segment -- like the i10 -- in Australia, have been pretty inconsistent, so we're anxious to gauge feedback from the media, feedback from the public as to the suitability of the i10 for Australia. Nevertheless all the feedback we've had has been positive."

All of this leads to the question, what needs to be done to bring the i10 to Australia? And what sort of timeframe is involved?

"The first issue is supply lines -- in other words, we don't currently ship vehicles from Chennai to Australia," says Mann.

"There are various different solutions with different timelines and different costs associated to them. There's no simple, straightforward answer, but it's not insurmountable.

"The second is related to the supply of i20, because as a shipping proposal, the two programs will be considered alongside each other -- but I don't think we'd want to launch the two vehicles side by side. Once we've defined the future of i20 in this market, then the decision should be taken fairly quickly as to i10's availability."

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