Hyundai ups production of Verna, i20 diesel variants by 50%

The country's second largest car maker Hyundai Motor India today said it has ramped up the production capacity of diesel variants of its sedan Verna and compact car i20 by up to 50 per cent from this month.

"The supply of both the diesel cars taken together will go up almost 50 per cent from the existing 7,000 units per month to 10,500 units per month," Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) said in a statement. The company has increased sourcing of diesel engines from South Korea following increased demand of such cars in India due to a big difference in retail prices of petrol and diesel.

Commenting on the development, HMIL Director (Marketing and Sales) Arvind Saxena said: "Increased supply will ease the waiting period substantially. We expect the waiting period for the diesel Verna to drop from 6 months to 2-3 months and for the new iGen i20 to about a month."

Last year, HMIL had put on hold its Rs 400-crore diesel engine plant. The plant was envisaged to have an annual capacity of 1.5 lakh units for three types of engines -- 1.1 litre, 1.4 litre and 1.6 litre for the domestic market. With the Budget for 2012-13 leaving the tax structure of diesel-driven vehicles unchanged, the company had recently said that it was evaluating the situation and would take a decision soon.

In 2011, HMIL's domestic sales increased to 3,73,709 units, registering a growth of 4.76 per cent from 3,56,717 units in the previous year.