New Hyundai Santro Bags Over 23,000 Pre-bookings

Celebrating two decades of the Santro in India, Hyundai has brought back the original tallboy after a hiatus of over three years. And if we are to go by the figures released by the carmaker today, it looks on track for a great comeback.

Since we got its first glimpses on 12 October, Hyundai has received around 23,500 pre-bookings for the 2018 Santro and this too just from the online channels. Bookings were also opened today at Hyundai showrooms as the Korean carmaker finally announced the prices, which start from Rs 3.90 lakh (ex-showroom pan-India) for the base D-Lite variant.

The all-new Santro is available in a total of five variants. These consist of the base D-Lite (Rs 3.90 lakh), Era (Rs 4.25 lakh), Magna (Rs 4.58-5.24 lakh), Sportz (Rs 5.00-5.65 lakh) and top of the line Asta (Rs 5.45 lakh). Buyers should note these are introductory prices and are limited to the first 50,000 customers. Both CNG and AMT are available only with the Magna and Sportz trims. Sadly, there is no AMT-CNG option available at present. Additionally, the fully loaded Asta trim is offered only with a petrol manual.

The new Santro debuts the first ever AMT gearbox from Hyundai. And it does seem like a popular option amongst prospective buyers as Hyundai has confirmed that 34 per cent of overall bookings have been for the AMT variants. This figure is even larger in metros such as Delhi and Mumbai, where bookings for the AMT variants has been 45-50 per cent. Interestingly, buyers who opt for the AMT have to compromise on safety as it doesn’t get a passenger airbag.

In terms of performance, the Santro’s 1.1-litre four-cylinder engine makes 69PS/99Nm with petrol power and 59PS/84Nm with CNG. Fuel efficiency is rated at 20.3kmpl for the petrol and 30.48km/kg for the CNG versions.

Hyundai has armed the new Santro with plenty of goodies on the inside as well. The top-spec Asta variant gets features such as a touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a reverse camera, rear AC vents as well as steering-mounted audio controls.

Anticipating good festive demand, Hyundai has kept the introductory pricing of the Santro competitive and hopes to garner sales of nearly 8,000 units per month initially. And given the buzz Hyundai has managed to create so far, it does seem achievable. These numbers are still nowhere close to those of the WagonR, which consistently breaches the 15,000 units mark every month. However, Hyundai seems fairly confident of catching up with the competition going forward.

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Apart from the WagonR, the Santro has both the Celerio and the Tata Tiago in its sights, and hopes to clinch market share in the compact hatchback (A2) segment which is roughly around 30,000 units a month.

With its trusted pedigree wrapped in an all-new packaging, the revival of the Santro nameplate has begun. And now, what remains to be seen is whether it will be a runaway success just as its predecessor or not. From what we have seen so far, the only thing which might taper down demand is a slightly higher than expected pricing for the top-end variants. On the flipside, what may work in its favour is the feature-rich packaging, an affordable AMT, the dependability and hopefully, for Hyundai, the huge nostalgia value that the Santro nameplate brings.