HMIL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of $ 8.24 billion Korean chaebol - Hyundai Motor Company. ``Hyundai has invested Rs 3,000 crore in its Indian operations and the response to Santro has been good. We are expecting to sell about 50,000 to 60,000 cars in the current fiscal. Of this, we hope to sell about 5,000 of our forthcoming model - LC. We are quite happy with the Indian automobiles industry which is just opening up. If we manage to sell around 60,000 cars by this fiscal-end, our Indian operations will break-even,'' Kim said.

On the growing demand forSantro, Kim said that the company is planning to introduce second shift in order to increase production in our Chennai plant. Hyundai has already sold 30,000 cars in the country. ``By the year 2001, we intend to produce 1.2 lakh cars,'' he said. Kim said that Hyundai's new model LC is set for a launch in October and pre-production prototypes are already in place. ``As far as competition is concerned, I am sure some manufacturers will have to get out of the segment due to over-crowding. The mid-segment will grow in future as during the course of time many small car consumers graduate to mid-sized cars,'' he said.

On exports of Santro, he said the company is looking at the possibility of exporting cars to the neighbouring countries like Nepal and Pakistan as semi-knocked down (SKDs) kits and completely built Units (CBUs). ``At present we are exporting components like transmissions and engines worth Rs 300 crore this year. We hope that our exports will grow up to Rs 3,000 crore in the next 10 years,'' he said.Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) sold more than double the number of Santros as compared to Daewoo's Matiz during the last month. Hyundai Motor India sold 4,634 units of Santro against 6,506 customer orders in June. Against this, Daewoo Motors India Ltd dispatched 2,231 units of the Matiz in June from its plant in Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh.With the production being stepped up, the waiting period for the customers would be brought down from the present four weeks plus level. Commenting on the market success of Santro, Kim said, "we are overwhelmed by the tremendous customer response. It is our endeavour to continue providing greater value to our customers". Santro, which was launched in Chennai in September 1998, has captured nearly 10 per cent of the domestic passenger car market. Meanwhile, HMIL delivered its first Euro-II Santro in Mumbai on Friday. The company has decided not to restrict the availability of its Euro-II cars.