Grand i10 rakes in more than 10,000 bookings, but Hyundai isn't done with the testing yet

There are certain things about Hyundai that doesn't fail to impress us. Despite being the largest car exporter out of India and second only to Maruti-Suzuki in domestic sales, the company is targeting further growth and continue to launch models across all segments of the passenger car industry. Between the Santro, Eon, i10 and i20, Hyundai's small cars hold the second largest share after Maruti-Suzuki's lineup of six small cars. The Verna leads the mid-size segment in sales while the Elantra does the same in the premium midsize segment. A major attribute that helped Hyundai achieve such a big success in India is coming out in the Grand i10 episode, Hyundai's newest entrant in small car segment.

The Grand i10 is hardly a month old in the Indian market. Within this time-span, Hyundai received a colossal 100,000 enquiries for the car of which more than 10,000 odd were apparently converted into confirmed orders. But Hyundai, being who they are, isn't resting on it's laurels. Instead of basking on the success of the Grand i10, Hyundai India continues to test the car in and around Chennai where the company's manufacturing facility is located.

So, what's cooking in this test car? We know that Hyundai is about to launch an automatic transmission variant of the Grand i10 in a few months, powered by the peppy 1.2-liter Kappa2 engine. It could be the auto tranny that's being given a workout here. But then, the test car with its steel wheels sans wheel covers hints at the base variant. So, is Hyundai readying a new base variant to go below the existing 'Era' variant? We don't know yet. On the contrary, this car could just be part of an endurance run of the Grand i10 with no new parts or components being tested. Anyway, if the test car was without the partial camouflage that it had, we wouldn't have even noticed it thanks to a healthy number of Grand i10s roaming around in Chennai already.

Whatever it is, Hyundai's relentless commitment and focus comes out to the fore here. This will all but ensure that the grand run of the Grand i10 is here to stay!