Confident of regaining No. 2 slot in India: Hyundai’s Garg

New Delhi: With plans to launch over two dozen new cars in India over the next few years, Hyundai on Tuesday said it is confident of getting back its No. 2 position in the domestic market as new models come in and it increases production capacity and offerings in the country, including electrics and hybrids.The company, which has faced stiff competition from Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors, is also ramping up its production to nearly one million cars per annum, as it begins manufacturing from its new plant at Talegaon (in Maharashtra), which it acquired from General Motors. This will place it just behind top producer Maruti Suzuki in terms of installed production capacity in India.As it launched the new-gen version of the Venue mini SUV at an entry price of Rs 7.9 lakh (ex-showroom-Delhi), Tarun Garg – the COO of Hyundai India (who is set to take charge as CEO and MD from Jan) – said the company remains confident on the outlook and growth potential.“In the domestic market, we are passionate about the No. 2 position. And we will get it back,” Garg told TOI, when asked about the growing competition for the company, which recently announced an investment of Rs 45,000 crore by the end of FY30.Garg said while there had been months where some of the competitors had become the No. 2 maker in the domestic market, Hyundai still remained the second-ranked when it came to counting domestic and export sales cumulatively and even in full fiscal or calendar year numbers. “At the same time, we want to have a very strong approach of quality of sales as we grow… we have not joined price wars, we have not joined discount wars, we want to really raise benchmarks in technology.“Garg said SUVs will remain the dominant theme in new launches for Hyundai.