New Delhi, Sept 25 : Hyundai’s first all-electric car Kona has been sold out for the rest of 2019, and the Korean company is now struggling to keep pace with the high demand.
Priced at a little under Rs 24 lakh, the compact sports utility vehicle (SUV), has seen cumulative bookings of 300 units since its launch in July this year. Being stretched on deliveries, Hyundai is seeking extra volumes from its headquarters in Korea.
Puneet Anand, Group Head — Marketing, Hyundai Motor India, said, “We have received more than 300 bookings. Last month we did 88 wholesales. We are sold out for five months. It is a very niche product and we do not have too many deliveries from our parent company. That’s why we are now looking at augmenting our volumes.”
The five-seater Kona has a drive range of 450 kms, the most offered by any fully electric car on sale in India at present. The vehicle is powered by a high voltage 39.2 kWh battery that generates maximum power of 136ps helping the Kona achieve 0-100km per hour in under 10 seconds. Hyundai is doing a part assembly job of the Kona at its Chennai factory at present but going forward the company will increase the local contribution to make operations more cost-effective. At the time of its launch Hyundai had set a target of 500 sales of the Kona on an annual basis.
Despite its steep price (it is the costliest Hyundai on sale in India) demand for the Kona has been unwavering.
“There is a five months waiting on the Kona. We do not have enough production going for the Kona (presently) because we have to get battery from Korea and there is also lot of demand for the car in Korea itself. That’s why India gets lesser allocation. But from November we should be able to improve on these allocations”, added Anand.
Mahindra with the e-Verito and Tata Motors with the e-Tigor are the only two other fully electric cars available on sale in India. Both have a drive range of around 120-140 kms on a full charge and cost around Rs 10 lakh.
Tata Motors, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, MG Motors and Nissan are some of the companies that are readying launch of electric vehicles in India next year. The models will be a combination of new platform products developed specifically for India and international models which have been on sale in some of the developed markets.
