The Hyundai Santro was one of the early entry-level hatchbacks the Indian market received. It had a considerable time on the road from 1998 to 2022 and was resurrected twice during this time of 24 years in the Indian market. But now, the family hatchback is gone for good. But what did we learn from the death of the Hyundai Santro?
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Initial Arrival
Hyundai Santro
We all have seen the Santro around from the late 1990s in our neighbourhood or on the road, and there is a very high chance that someone in your family also owned one. Hyundai did a fantastic job with this candidate, and the Santro represented the aspirations of India. While the Indian market was still new, the Santro offered something more than the existing candidate Maruti 800. It offered something more than the minimum in the affordable family car range.
Also Read: Hyundai Santro Discontinued! | No More Tall Boy!
It held a significant position in Indian automobile history and was an excellent product for Hyundai. It offered a good package with a spacious interior and a 1.0-litre engine which was great at that time. It was based on the Atos, and soon after the launch, the sales started hitting the sky and helped them take over some market from Maruti.
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Turning into a Taxi
Hyundai released the details about the new BS6 complaint engine for its old reliable Santro.
In 2003 Hyundai gave the first significant update to the Santro with a Xing model with a 1.1-litre engine churning out 62hp & 96 Nm of torque. With the help of this hot-selling hatchback, Hyundai had established itself well in the Indian market by 2005. By this time, Santro had an image of any affordable family car with a sharp exterior. At the same time, the variants such as Zip & Zip-Plus were adding to the car’s appeal and increasing the numbers even more.
Also Read: Tiago CNG vs WagonR CNG vs Santro CNG
While it was performing well in the affordable car category, Hyundai also focused on more premium products such as Sonata, but despite that, Santro still accounted for 76% of the sales. As it grew with time, making Hyundai the second-largest automobile manufacturer by 2009, the Santro grew in the commercial sector and started being used as a kaali-peeli taxi in Mumbai.
With the performance and robust build, the well-developed service network, and the availability of parts, it was a perfect car to be a taxi, and this is a point when things started going south. Once a car makes it to the commercial taxi fleet, it loses its allure as a personal car.
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Low Sales
After Santro entered the taxi fleet, people started looking for other options, and Hyundai’s other candidates, such as i10 & i20, were already gaining a fair share in the market. Santro was still upgraded with the dual-tone interior, but till then, people wanted more from their hatchbacks, to which cars like i10 catered well.
Moving along with time, by 2014, the sales for Santro started taking a dip, and the final closing lid was put by Eon, which was not successful in the market, but Hyundai halted Santro’s production in 2014.
Also Read: Remembering the 2002 Hyundai Santro ZipPlus Automatic!
When Hyundai resurrected it, Santro did sell a little but not like the previous generation, which was immensely successful. The factory-fitted CNG did attract buyers, but other things such as the air-conditioning were an issue. And as the emission norms changed and got stricter with time, the BS-VI norms contributed to the price hike of the Santro, which was not so affordable anymore with better packages offered by the competitors.
The Indian market is already moving to crossovers and compact SUVs rather than going for entry-level hatchbacks. This might be the end of an era? Or do you think the Santro might come back again as an EV?
