Is Hyundai Planning To Stop Accent In India?

Published: Monday, August 6, 2012, 13:21 [IST]

The Hyundai Accent is said to be following the Honda Civic in India. Although the only similarity between these two cars is that they are sedans, both cars are expected to exit the India car market due to low sales. We had earlier reported about Honda's plans to stop selling the Civic executive sedan following low sales.

The Hyundai Accent was the Korean carmaker's best selling sedan until the arrival of the Verna. Launched way back in 1999, the Accent is available with a petrol engine only and this has turned out to be a disadvantage. Despite the price gap between the Accent and the recently launched Fluidic Verna being quite large people are preferring to buy the more modern looking Verna.

The looks department is another reason for Accent's downfall. Hyundai has made only minor updates to its design even as the entry level sedan market was flooded by new, better looking and feature rich models such as the the Maruti Suzuki Swift DZire, Tata Indigo, Honda City etc.

The Accent's sales have been coming down in recent months primarily due to the non availability of a diesel engine. Hyundai Motors could have launched a refreshed model but seems to have decided against it. We believe Hyundai could soon launch a new entry level sedan in the place of the Accent.

It is a pity to see the departure of the Hyundai Accent, a car which along with the Santro is credited with giving Hyundai Motors the push it needed to become India's second largest carmaker. One can say the Accent did have a dominant run in the sedan market against the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Esteem and Honda City. But the arrival of new models in the past one year has had a negative effect on the Accent.

We have to wait and watch if Hyundai Motors will launch a new entry level sedan in the coming days with the Accent name or an entirely new name.