Hyundai Motor India (HMIL), the second-largest carmaker in the country, is betting heavily on

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its yet-to-be-launched small car to penetrate into the rural market, a top executive of the company said.

According to Y K Koo, Senior Director (Sales and Marketing) HMIL, the small car will be launched in the first half of next year and the company has no immediate plans to export the car.

"We are planning to launch it in the first half of next year. The car will be manufactured in Indian plant. HMI is very strong in compact car segment. With this launch, we hope to dominate the rural market also. That is our strategy. If we have a small car it is easy to penetrate into the rural market," Yoo said on the sidelines of launch of Fluidic Verna in Andhra Pradesh market.

To a query on market share, he admitted that the brand is slightly losing sheen to the competitors. He, however, was quick to add that the situation arose as there was no new vehicle launches in 2010.

"We did not have any new product last year. But our competitors like Volkswagen, Ford and Nissan have all launched new vehicles. Even Maruti launched a new version of Alto. We don't have any new launches. Still our market share is at 19.7 per cent. The previous year it was 20.2 per cent."