Good day. Welcome to the Q1 FY 2027 earnings conference call of Hyundai Motor India Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Joseph George from IIFL Capital. Thank you. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Robin. Good evening, everyone. We welcome you all to the Q1 FY 2026 earnings conference call of Hyundai Motor India Limited. Today we have with us Mr. Tarun Garg, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hwang Do Yeon, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Dong Hee Pak, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Gopalakrishnan C. S., Chief Manufacturing Officer, Mr. Saravanan T., Function Head Finance, and Mr. K. S. Hariharan, Head of Investor Relations from Hyundai Motor India Limited. I would now like to inform you that the call is being recorded. I would like to invite Mr. KS Hariharan, Head of Investor Relations from Hyundai Motor India Limited. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Joseph. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Q1 financial year 2027 earnings conference call. Before we begin, I want to remind you of the safe harbor. We may be making some forward-looking statements that have to be understood in conjunction with the uncertainties and the risks that the company faces. The conference call will begin with our Managing Director remarks on the business highlights, financial performance, and outlook, followed by a brief presentation by me on Q1 financial year 2027. After which, we will be happy to receive your questions. I hand over to our Managing Director. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Hari. Good evening, everyone. Before we discuss our quarterly results, let me begin by highlighting a landmark achievement in our journey. 2026 marks Hyundai's 30 years in India, celebrating three decades of trust, pride, and progress. From investing more than INR 40,000 crore to surpassing 13.5 million sales cumulatively and making India a key global manufacturing and export hub, we continue to drive progress with purpose. This milestone is not just a celebration of our past achievements, but also a testament to the strong foundation we have built for continued growth and success in the years ahead. During this journey, Hyundai has helped shape India's automotive landscape through innovation, localization, and customer centricity. As we enter the next phase of our growth, we remain committed to advancing technology and delivering future-ready mobility solutions for our customers.
Moving on to our domestic business, fiscal 2027 began on a very strong note. The first two months of the quarter reflected healthy momentum with cumulative sales in April and May growing by 13% year-on-year, supported by a favorable demand environment and our strategic product actions. However, the fire incident at one of our supplier facilities temporarily impacted vehicle production in June, constraining our ability to fully meet market demand. As a result, domestic volume growth for the quarter was 5.4% year-on-year, lower than our initial expectations. However, at Hyundai, agility has always been part of our DNA. Throughout our 30-year journey in India, we have successfully navigated various challenges through swift decision-making, strong execution, and close collaboration with our partners. The recovery from recent operational disruption was yet another example of resilience, enabling us to return our operations to normalcy within a very short period.
Sorry to interrupt, sir, but you're not audible at this moment. This is the operator. You are not audible at this moment, sir. If you are speaking at the moment. Ladies and gentlemen, please stay with us. Hello?
I hope I'm audible now. I'm so sorry about this network issue. Am I audible?
Sir, you're audible. I'll reconnect you to the conference. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your patience. We have now reconnected with the management. Please go ahead, sir.
Okay. Extremely sorry about this network issue. I will quickly go through the presentation again. I mentioned about the 30 years completing, INR 40,000 crore investment, 13.5 million sales. Domestic FY 2027 began on a very strong note. However, the fire at our supplier facility constrained our growth to 5.4% in the quarter. If you remember, we had said that we will recover this production within this quarter, too. However, I'm very happy to report that most of it has already been done within July itself. This shows the strong resilience of Hyundai Motor India. This is the other thing I talked about. There are some achievements like Hyundai Venue, highest ever quarterly volumes, CNG contribution at 18%, rural contribution at an all-time high of 26%.
We are very confident that we are going to have 8%-10% year-over-year volume growth for this year, which we had stated at the beginning of the year. In exports also, in addition to this disruption in production, Middle East were affected, you would have seen that we have increased our exports to the other markets, and we have a very healthy order backlog. Now that the production is in full swing, we will start reflecting it in export sales right from July itself. Venue is also receiving a great response, and also Verna PE, EXTER PE, and also the LHD of EXTER, we have already started the dispatches. We are expecting very strong recovery in exports. We are confident of delivering our stated full year guidance of 8%-10% year-over-year in exports as well.
On CAFE update, this is an issue which is being talked about. I'm pleased to inform you that as per our internal assessment, we will fully meet the compliance requirements and not incur any penalty at all under CAFE- 2 for the period FY 2023 to FY 2027. FY 2027 also is going great. Zero penalty on CAFE- 2. We are fully aligned to the CAFE- 3 draft notification. We are waiting for the final notification to come in. Profit margins year-over-year were impacted due to lower export volumes, costs associated with the Pune plant, et cetera. Our efforts to balance the calibrated pricing actions with disciplined cost management, they have helped us to minimize the impact.
We are very confident that what we had informed you earlier of EBITDA margin between 11%-14%, we are well on track to achieve that even in FY 2027. I'm happy to report that Pune plant third shift, we are starting from October itself. The earlier plan was mid-2028, we are preponing it by two years because of the strong response received on the Venue in the domestic as well as in the export market. The ICE mid SUV is ready to be launched in the festive season. A lot of activities on the AI integration whether it is in sales and marketing, the AI sales agent, the hygiene chatbot, dealer AI platforms, in service, VOC analytics, service automation, manufacturing and supply chain. We are also working towards multiple initiatives, including quality inspection, predictive maintenance.
Our vision is to evolve AI from a productive tool into an intelligence coworker that supports employees, augments decision making, and accelerates innovation. Soon you will see in our products as well that we are advancing in-vehicle AI capabilities. Thank you very much for your continued support to us, and I will now hand it over to Hari for a detailed review of the fiscal financial performance for the quarter. Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir. Let me begin with our sales performance during the quarter. We achieved total sales of 178,082 vehicles in Q1 FY 2027, compared to 180,399 vehicles in the corresponding quarter last year, a decline of 1.3% year-over-year. The impact on volumes was mainly due to the production disruption caused by supplier fire incident and geopolitical headwinds. In the domestic market, we sold 139,374 vehicles compared to 132,259 vehicles in the same quarter last year, a growth of 5.4% year-over-year basis. We exported 38,708 vehicles as compared to 48,140 vehicles same quarter previous year. Moving to the segment mix in domestic market, SUVs continue to be the core pillar in our portfolio, with a healthy mix of 70% during the quarter, a similar trend has been observed both in urban and rural markets.
On fuel front, we also continue to see strong momentum in the CNG segment, with steady growth reaching highest ever contribution of 18.2% in a quarter in Q1 FY 2027. Let me now share the financial numbers. Our revenue from operations stood at INR 163,346 million in Q1 FY 2027, as against INR 164,129 million in the corresponding quarter previous year. Despite many headwinds, our calibrated pricing strategy and favorable exchange rate helped support our revenue, which remained largely flat year-over-year. EBITDA stood at INR 15,117 million, as compared to INR 21,852 million in Q1 FY 2026. EBITDA margin stood at 9.3% as compared to 13.3% in Q1 FY 2026. EBITDA stood at INR 9,546 million for the quarter as against INR 16,571 million in Q1 FY 2026. EBITDA margin stood at 5.8% in Q1 FY 2027.
PAT for the quarter was INR 8,886 million, as against INR 13,692 million in the corresponding quarter. PAT margin for Q1 FY 2027 stood at 5.4%. Our Q1 FY 2027 margins were impacted by a combination of factors. Key common headwinds for both year-over-year and sequential basis were, number one, the production disruption, which impacted the volumes, especially of certain high margin models. Number two, West Asia conflict impacting our export volumes. Number three, the commodity cost pressures. In addition to these, year-over-year, margins were also impacted by capacity stabilization cost. These pressures were partly offset by favorable exchange rate and our calibrated pricing strategy. On a sequential basis, margins were impacted by increase in discount levels and lower government incentives due to seasonality. While discounts increased sequentially, this was in line with the typical seasonal trend for the quarter.
Importantly, our discount levels remained below the industry average and our Q1 FY 2026 discount levels, reflecting our disciplined pricing approach. The sequential headwinds were partially mitigated by our continuous cost optimization initiatives and also absence of certain one-off expenses incurred in Q4 FY 2026. This concludes my presentation. Thank you all for your time and attention. Now, we open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Kapil Singh with Nomura. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Congratulations on a strong performance. My first question is on the margins. We have seen very strong gross margins. Actually, an improvement at a time when there was severe cost pressure. Can you just talk us through how much cost pressure we faced during the quarter, how we were able to mitigate that? Is there further cost pressure that we are envisaging on account of commodities, any price hikes we have taken thereof?
Hi, Kapil. Hari here. The commodity impact on our margins during the quarter was roughly 100 basis points on a Q1-Q basis. In fact, the impact was largely seen in precious metals and copper. We could somehow minimize the impact on margins during this quarter to some extent, mainly supported by three factors. Number one, our calibrated pricing strategy. Number two, our cost reduction efforts. Also, if you remember, last time we indicated that there was a certain one-off in commodity in Q4 of last financial year. That also helped us to some extent during this quarter. Right? Your second question was on the price hike, right? Price increase is something, normally we take a calibrated approach here. So far this calendar year, we have taken three price hikes, cumulatively around 100 basis points we have taken.
Going forward, we will continue to see the commodity trend, the market condition, and other factors as well. Looking at all these factors, we'll take a decision on the price increase. Thank you, Kapil.
Kapil, we stay committed to our EBITDA guidance of 11%-14% for the fiscal year. I think this is very important. All our decisions are based on that this is what we have promised to the market, we will take accordingly. We have to have that balance between the volume aspiration and the margin. One thing which you would have noticed is that year-over-year, the discounts have also come down. Last year, same quarter, discount was 3.4%. This year is 2.8%. When the new models come in, typically in the first year, the discount levels are zero.
We believe that H2, which we'll see minimum two new models, should really help us in even managing within the discount level and also help us to not really go for aggressive price hikes, and maintain our EBITDA margins within this range, 11%-14%. Hope I've answered your question. Thank you.
Yeah, sir. Actually, most of the OEMs are calling out very severe cost pressure of, let's say, around 300-400 basis points. In that context, should we expect more cost pressure ahead or most of it is reflected in your financials? Just was trying to understand that.
Look, year-on-year, we had about 200 basis points on the commodity. Like you said, quarter-on-quarter, 100, year-on-year, 200. Now, what happens in the future is anybody's guess. It's very difficult, Kapil Singh. As of now, we are holding on, and we will see how the market goes. The demand looks good. We also have to understand that the base of last year will start coming up from October. Till September, everything is looking much more better in industry growth because the base was very low. The GST came in in September. We are expecting that from October, industry growth will mute. I think we have to be conscious of that as well. Let's see. Like I said, we'll have a calibrated approach and do what is best in terms of volume and profit put together. Thank you.
Sure, sir. Sir, second question was on demand side. What is the outlook for the industry and for Hyundai? Can we expect market share to pick up now? In the second half, do you expect Hyundai's growth to be higher than the industry?
For sure. Like I said, we are maintaining our 8%-10% guidance, which means that we have to grow minimum 8%-10% in the second half also, because we have grown by only 5.4% in quarter one. Frankly speaking, from H2, like I mentioned, the base effect will start coming in. What will work for Hyundai is two absolutely new models in a high growth segment, which I think will be an edge for us over the others. The second thing which will help is the Venue third shift, which will mean more Venue volumes come up. I think these are the two things which are really helping Hyundai versus the competition, which will help us to get back on the market share winning ways going forward. On the export front also, like I mentioned, the back order is very strong.
Also all these extra LHD, extra PE, of course the Middle East, and all the effort which we have put in the Central and South American markets, because of the problem in Middle East. I think now we'll have both the Middle East coming in as well as the strong CSA. Venue is also adding up. I think all these things should really help us in the coming quarters. Thank you.
Thank you, sir, and best wishes.
Thank you. Thank you, Kapil.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Binay Singh with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thanks for that. Just a clarification from the earlier question. Looking at all the cost pressures that you know of today, is where you still feel comfortable with the margin guidance, right? That is the way to read it.
Comfortable is not the word. Nobody can be comfortable in this kind of a scenario. I think we feel that we are in charge of what we are doing. We know where we are. What we are saying is that, we will take actions as and when required, to ensure that we are within the 11%-14% EBITDA range. I think this is what we are saying, to be very clear, Binay. We don't like prices going up. At the same time, you see what the uncertainty. Even crude, you see one day it reaches 90, other day it is 73. In this scenario, it's very difficult to really judge what's going to happen in the future. Frankly speaking, our internal assessment suggests that things are not going to be so tough on the raw material side.
I think things will start cooling off, if not immediately, but definitely in the coming months, they should cool off as well. We will keep that in mind when we are taking a decision on price and volume. Discounts, of course, we'll keep them in check, like we have been able to do in the last couple of years. Thank you.
Thanks. Secondly, on the new model launch, fair to assume that both the models will be available for six months, or one is available for six months of this year?
I think, like I said, the festive season it is coming. H2, both the models will be available in H2. Now, full H2 or how much, I can't really inform you the exact time of launch. One model definitely, since it's coming in the festive season, it will be for almost the entire H2.
Just lastly, on electric vehicles, this will be your first sort of a major EV launch in India. How do you see profitability of that versus the market? Because what we are seeing in your assumption is that you are probably launching an electric vehicle. Still we are seeing margin trajectory moving up. Is it the global cost structure of Hyundai that is helping you position it, or you plan to price it in a premium side? Any thoughts on what will be your EV cost structure versus competitors? Do you have an edge over there?
Yeah. I got your question. While I'll not like to comment exactly on the profitability or the cost structure, couple of things which are very important is that, one, we are gunning for the PLI for this new model. I think this is something which we have not been able to do so far. This is a very big boost to our efforts in this. Number two, we have been working very strongly on the localization. In addition to the battery packs, we are looking at the other elements on power electronics, et cetera, and making sure that, of course, as you know, for the PLI, we need a 50% domestic value addition as well.
Right.
I think that is something which is very important. Of course, HMC strength in the EVs is something which will help us. Also, we are looking, like I mentioned in my opening remarks, this EV will not only be an EV, I think we will use AI in a big way. We're also working on the overall value proposition to the customer. You would have read, Binay, about our announcements on the myHyundai app, which gives customer access to 30,000 charging points.
Right.
I think a lot of things we are doing, which will make our EV proposition a very strong one. Also this is the first mass market dedicated EV from Hyundai. I think we are building a very strong proposition for the customer, and we are quite confident that this should really give us volumes. On the profit and all, I will not like to make a comment, but these are some of the things which will help us to position it better. Thank you.
Great. Thanks, team. Best wishes for the next other year.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the queue, we request you to please restrict yourselves to two questions only. You may rejoin the queue if you have any further questions. Our next question comes from the line of Chandramouli Muthiah with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening and thanks for taking my questions. My first question is just around the current utilization rates at the Chennai and the Talegaon facilities. I just want to understand how much additional capacity do you see getting unlocked with the third shift on the Venue?
Just to explain to you, we have three plants. two plants in Chennai, one in Pune. The Pune question, if you remember, we had said that phase I we will be 170,000, which is a three shift operation. Currently we are working on two shifts. Now we are going to three shifts, which means that potential capacity can be 170,000. We'll see how much of it we can use starting from October, of course. This will be in H2 of this year. This is where Pune stands. The most important thing is plant one in Chennai, where this year, because the Venue got shifted, the capacity is only 72% utilization. I think with the two new models coming in, we will reach the capacity utilization of 88% in the plant one of Chennai.
This is a major game changer for us in terms of optimizing the cost. On two fronts. One is the Pune plant where, of course, the third shift will help. Second is the plant one of Chennai, where the capacity utilization will go up from 72% to minimum about 88%, 90%, 91%, if not more. I hope I've answered your question. Thank you.
Got it. That's helpful. Second question is just on the export business. I think over the past four to five months, there's been a lot of disruption on the shipping lines into the Middle East, which is also an important part of your export business. I just want to understand the confidence that you're seeing on export volumes coming back. Just want to understand how the supply chain is looking, how the shipping channels are looking for you. Also just related to that, we've seen reasonably big improvement in export ASPs. I think it's up about 7% year-over-year, 5%-6% up quarter-over-quarter. I just want to understand what are the key models that are driving that ASP pickup. Just export volume pickup in the medium term, is that backed by visibility around shipping channels as well as ASP drivers?
What are the key models that drive that momentum?
Let me give you some levers for exports and why are we confident. First is, the new Venue. It has received a great reception. Already 29 markets are in-- they have started giving orders, and we are planning for 35 total markets in the near future. Exter LHD, which we have launched for the first time. The shipment is starting in this quarter. 13 markets we will reach. 13 markets by quarter three. Verna PE also from June we have started and more than 25 markets will reach by Q3. I think these are the three things. Yes, those challenges on freight, Strait of Hormuz, et cetera, are still continuing.
At the same time, along with our logistic partner, we are trying finding ways and we believe that. The back order is very strong, I think you will see in July itself, the shipments of exports would have gone up, one because of things opening up from Middle East in terms of orders, and number two, because that incident is behind us and we have been able to do the production. Mexico, although there was challenges because of tariff, it's still holding on and we are receiving some good orders from Mexico as well. I think CSA, the efforts done in CSA, Central and South America, in January to March quarter, and April to June quarter, will hold us in good stead going forward as well. The 23% year-on-year growth and the demand remains steady there.
I think that is why we are confident. On ASP, of course, ASP, although it improved, please understand, we had to shift from Middle East to CSA, the hatch contribution went up, CSA is more of hatch-dominated. The moment Middle East opens, the Verna opens up, that will again give us more opportunity. Also, Middle East is mostly automatic, that also increases the ASP. I think that is what all those factors should really help us to increase exports, and maybe Hari will add some more things. Hari.
Yes, Chandru. Our broader strategy is we are looking at enhancing our SUV mix in exports as well. Domestic already we are very strong with 70% SUV contribution. If you see exports, we have hardly 13, 14% of contribution. Clearly, we can understand there is a lot of headroom here to improve the SUV mix. That is a broader strategy. We are working towards that. Thank you.
Got it. Thank you very much, and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is on the line of Gunjan Prithyani with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. My first question is just clarification on this Venue third phase. Essentially, the entire Pune plant is going to be Venue plant, which means roughly 14,000, 15,000 sort of per month production. That caters to both domestic as well as exports. This third line will essentially cater both domestic as well as exports. That's the way to think about it, right?
Absolutely. You're spot on.
Okay. On the capacity utilization, which you mentioned will go up from 72% to 88% in the Chennai plant. Is that something when both the launches are ramped up, or is it that we are expecting 88% in second half? How should I think about this number that you gave on the Chennai capacity utilization?
I talked about plant one, what I mentioned was that in 2026, in plant one, broadly, we are at about 72% capacity utilization, we believe in 2027, we should be around 90%, 92%, maybe more in plant one. Plant one of Chennai. This is where it is. In 2026 calendar, 72%. In 2027 calendar, 90%, 92%. This is the best I can do to answer your question. I hope it helps you. Thank you.
No, this is helpful. Okay, second question, Tarun, if you can give us a little bit more, if you can, to whatever extent, give us a little bit more understanding on the position of the midsize SUV that is due for launch during festive. The reason for this question is, often we end up comparing midsize CRETA and other model in the same category. How should we think about the positioning of this model and, if you indeed with this launch worry about what happens to the CRETA volume? Some thoughts around this.
Look, if you see this segment, mid-SUV segment is growing very sharply, and of course, CRETA continues to be the market leader here. At the same time, we believe that two models, clearly a space for two models, and the positioning will be very different from the CRETA. Like I mentioned, it will be kind of a technology-first positioning. We are moving more and more into software-defined vehicles, connected mobility platform. Of course, we are having more and more Gen Z and digitally native customers. A lot of things, you have to be more patient because I don't want to diverge too much of a marketing strategy. But we have a very, very clear differentiation with the CRETA, don't worry about it. Like I mentioned, also, if you see, there is a clear space between four meter and, say, 4.4 meter.
This segment is really opening up. We have seen even the industry, many more models coming in. I think there is a very clear opening for us, and that is why we have decided to get into this segment. Thank you.
Got it. Just last quick one, if I can, on the Venue. If I remember in last call you mentioned you will sort of come back with which are the markets that Venue can cater globally, because outside of India and Korea, Venue is roughly 100,000 or 90,000 odd market sizing. Is it that we cater to entire market size outside of India and Korea, or is there any other way to think about in terms of the potential for target markets for Venue?
It's not so easy because the regulations are very different in different markets. If we want to really cater to some of those market, then we will have to spend a lot in CapEx, et cetera. Then it increases the cost for the overall Venue. We have to be very selective. At the same time, there are enough markets where, like I mentioned, that we can do the Venue. We are already looking at doubling the Venue volumes at the minimum, and the response has been very good, in fact, from all the markets. I think this is a new opportunity which is kind of opening up. Definitely no. Answer to your question on the developed markets taking this new Venue, I think the answer is a clear no, because the regulations will be very expensive for us to do as of now.
At the same time, we will continuously evaluate and see if there are more opportunities there. Thank you.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amyn Pirani with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Most of the questions have been answered. Can you just give us a sense, given the demand has been so strong and your production had been impacted, what is the kind of dealer inventory levels that you're witnessing right now, and how do you think about dealer inventory build-up as we go into the festive season and you prepare for the launch?
Obviously, in June, the dealer inventory level came down because of the production disruption. We had a good growth in the retails, and we were able to meet the retail numbers. Now the production is back. Like I mentioned, most of the production loss has been recovered. We will continue to build inventory over July, August, and September for the festive season. At the same time, we are very prudent in that. We will take a balanced approach and not really burden the dealers with inventory. The good thing is the retail momentum continues to be high, and you would have seen that our discount levels also at 2.8% are lower than the year-on-year discount level of 3.4%.
I think we are maintaining a very prudent approach, and we will see that we have adequate inventory or optimum inventory as we enter the festive season in October. Thank you.
Okay. Thanks for that, sir. I'll come back in the queue.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Raghunandhan NL with Nuvama Research. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. My first question was on the demand side. Good to see that you are retaining the domestic growth expectation at 8%-10%. For the industry, when it comes to urban versus rural demand, are you seeing any signs of slowdown in rural? July Vahan registrations indicate that there is a slower growth in the rural markets versus that of urban markets. Trying to understand any initial signs of slowdown because of the El Niño impact or anything like that. Thank you.
First thing is, of course, we are not seeing any slowdown in the rural markets. If you see quarter 1 of 2026, rural contribution was 22.6%, whereas this year, quarter 1 of 2027, rural contribution has increased to 25.9% for us. In terms of growth, rural growth was 23.2% in this quarter year-on-year. Urban growth was only 2.8%, and that is how the overall 5.4% growth came in. I think we are seeing a good traction. That has also to do with our strategy on the rural. Like I mentioned, six out of 10 outlets which are being given are in the rural areas. And that we have been doing now for three years. The mobile service vans, which we are deploying. The acceptance of our SUVs in the rural markets is something which is again helping us.
I think we are seeing a continuous traction. El Niño and all, we have been hearing about it now for three, four years, but we have not seen that kind of an impact and continuous. Because I think two or three things which have happened is, one, the road infrastructure has improved dramatically in the rural areas. Number two, the dissemination of information because of course, the Jio and whatever. Rural customers now know about the new products, and that is why their demand for SUVs has really gone up. In fact, our SUV contribution in the rural areas is now equal to urban areas.
Number three, not only more outlets, but the big focus on service is another thing which is giving the confidence to the rural areas or rural customers that, okay, they can buy a car because they will have somebody to look after it as well. I think those things give us this confidence of rural markets, and it continues unabated as far as the rural traction is concerned. We don't see too much of a pressure there as far as rural growth is concerned. Hope I've answered your question. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you, sir. That was comprehensive. Thanks for that. My second question is on the cost side. Good to see the maintenance or the efficiency in the gross margin. On the employee cost and other expenses, there has been an increase, 20% growth in the employee cost and 10% growth in the other expenses. Any one-offs or anything to call out in these cost items? How should we see these items going forward?
Ragu, first of all, on the employee cost, year-on-year increase, whatever we are seeing is mainly to do with the Pune Plant commencement. Of course, the yearly salary revisions also get reflected in the employee cost. If you see the other expenses, actually year-on-year, the increase is mainly attributed to increase in freight cost, especially for the export operations. The point to be understood here is, as far as freight is concerned, we generally don't see any impact on the margins because whatever is the increase, we generally recover from the distributors. Hope it clarifies, Raghu.
Thank you, Hari. That was helpful.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ashish Jain with Macquarie Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good evening. Sir, my first question is, the new model launches that we are seeing, is there any export opportunity of these that we are evaluating at this moment?
If you see, Ashish, right from the time we set foot in India 30 years back, export has been a key pillar of our strength. Our SOP normally is that we launch a model in domestic markets. After three months, we launch it in the export markets. If you see the emerging markets, their economy, their customer preferences are very similar to India. These two models, we believe, would have a good traction, both the mid SUV, as well as the EV in the export market. At this point of time, I cannot give you some numbers or the market. At the right time, we will inform you about our plans for the export markets of these models as well. Yeah, thank you.
Sir, secondly, you spoke about the difference between rural and urban growth, in this quarter. Is it also reflecting the disruption in CRETA sales? Is that the main reason or you think this is the core demand momentum was so divergent between rural and urban this quarter?
Like I mentioned, the SUV contribution in rural and urban is same. CRETA only happened in June because of the disruption. The majority of that 13,900 we lost was CRETA. That happened only in June. Generally, we are seeing a same SUV contribution in urban and rural areas. I don't think CRETA has anything to do with it. Thank you.
Okay. Great, sir. Thank you so much, and best of luck.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Pramod Kumar with UBS Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. Tarun, just one clarification, sir. On the industry growth, what is our forecast, sir, for the full year? Just double-checking.
Look, H2, like I said, H2 industry growth will be the real industry growth because that will come at a base which is real after the GST. Let's see. It's anybody's guess. We are definitely looking at HMI growth of 8% to 10%. My guess is industry growth should be in the lower single digits in H2. The base is really high and, of course, as you know, industry is seeing a lot of headwinds in terms of raw material costs, et cetera. I think it should normalize to lower single digit in H2 fiscal 2027. Thank you.
Full year, consequently, will be what? Again, 7%, 8% for growth for the industry? First half, so far it's 17% growth or thereabout July, so far.
I wish I could really guess as good as you. Maybe 8%. Let's see. Maybe 8%, maybe 9%. Let's see. We don't know. Different companies are giving different projections. Still, some people are sticking to 5% to 7%. Let's see. It should be in the range of, I think 6% to 8%, 9%, is what my guess is.
Okay, the industry growth can be a very different outcome, but something which you can have reasonable confidence on the market share side, sir, with the launches and what is the exit market share, what you're looking at? We've paid a huge price on market share because of production issues and various other problems. Now with the launches also coming, capacity ramping up, what kind of exit market share would you aspire to have when you exit FY 2027, sir?
Definitely. If you see the last fiscal, we ended with something around 12.3%, 12.35% market share. We should do much better than that in terms of the exit market share, because by the time we exit this year, we would have both these two models up and running. I think we should be doing fine in terms of market share. Like I mentioned, in H2, we will surely be outpacing the industry growth. We are very confident about it. Two, three factors, like I already mentioned, two new models, then, of course, the fleet sales, and of course the Venue third shift. All these three factors are very specific to Hyundai, and which should help us to outpace the industry growth in H2. Thank you.
Second is on the PLI. You said the new model you aspire to have PLI, which I think will make the product pretty competitive, do you expect it to be the case from day one or do you expect it will happen over a period of time, as you ramp up the localization? You're already starting the production with high localization and hence eligible for PLI from day one?
As far as readiness is concerned, we are targeting day one.
Very good.
Administrative and all could take whatever time, as far as we are concerned.
We are targeting day one readiness on the PLI for the new EV.
Finally, sir, CRETA anything? We can see the volumes what Seltos is doing. Of course, CRETA is holding its own. The kind of bump of what Seltos has seen in demand, even without the hybrid coming. Just trying to understand what is the likely timeline. Is it first half FY 2028, where one should expect the new CRETA or it could happen earlier?
You are always very hungry for information. Anyway, I think we have given enough information on the new launches. Don't worry, at the right time, we'll announce about the CRETA FMC as well. Right now, let's enjoy-
Fair enough. Thanks a lot
The new mid SUV, which is going to be launched in the festive season, and the new dedicated EV, which we are going to launch. I think they would be exciting enough. Thank you.
Yep. Thanks a lot. Best of luck, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we request you to please restrict yourselves to two questions only. Our next question is from the line of Yash Agarwal with Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Most of the questions have been answered. Just one question on rising CNG contribution. Basically, CNG has a better margin profile than the ICE counterparts, and if the CNG contribution increases going forward, can we see a better product mix?
I would not like to comment on margins. I think you can say similar margins is much better to understand this. CNG helps us in multiple ways. Of course, it is the cheapest way to meet CAFE, and of course, it helps us to increase volumes. We have a technology agnostic strategy, as you know. We believe that in the lower segments, especially, say, in the less than 15, 20 lakh segments, CNG is a very potent weapon. We'll continue with that. We've already announced, if you remember, that by 2030, we will have five or six CNGs, we will have four or five hybrids, we will have four or five EVs. We will have a very strong mix of all the technologies, all the clean technologies, rather than sticking to one.
Every year you will see improvement happening towards our goal of 2030, 32, more than 50% through green fuel. Thank you.
Also my second question is on the elevated staff and other costs. Can we expect...
Sorry to interrupt, Yash, you're not clearly audible. Request you to please check the mode.
Am I audible now?
Your audio is fading out.
Is it better now?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Basically, I'm just asking, did the staff costs and other costs have been elevated in Q1, so can we expect them to moderate a bit, or they will remain at same level, like same % of sales going forward?
On the overall cost front, we have been continuously working for cost optimization efforts because employee cost is one. I already explained the reasons for the increase. Even commodity pressure, we have discussed. Though these cost pressures are there on one side, we have been working on a lot of other cost optimization efforts through improving our localization and value engineering activities in order to take care of the margins.
The staff cost is primarily because of the Pune plant, like we mentioned. More volume, so it comes at some cost. Yeah. Thank you.
Okay, sir. That's it. I want to say best of luck for next results. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Jyoti Singh with Haitong Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Just as a follow-up question on export side, we have mentioned good export overall. Can we expect export volume to recover to the Q1 level, which was a 48,000 somewhere? Within the next two quarter, what markets get you there? Another question on the AI side, we have discussed in very detail in the PPT. What kind of vision we are seeing over there, and can you quantify the actual P&L impact so far on the cost-saving side, whether headcount avoidance or conversion uplift? That will be very helpful. Thank you.
Okay. First question first. 48,000 in a quarter is what you want. I think your aspirations are much lower. Our aspirations are much higher. We will be better than that 48,000 quarter in the coming quarters on the exports front. I already gave you the reasons, so I will not repeat. On the cost control and all, I think I'll request Hari to say. On AI, so many things are already happening in sales, service operations, and I already mentioned about manufacturing, supply chain. Something which you have not witnessed so far so much is on the product side, which you will soon start witnessing with our future product launches. What I can assure you is that Hyundai Motor India will take a lead in terms of AI in the automotive space, and it will be a 360-degree effect you will see, not only limited to one area.
Hari, can you take the cost question?
As I mentioned, we have been closely working towards improving our localization. We have been working with the supply chain. In fact, our localization level, a couple of years ago, it used to be somewhere around 77, 78%. Today, if you look at our number, it is quite healthy at 83%. We have a midterm target of reaching 90% localization by 2030, right? Quite clearly, you can understand, we have been very aggressive in terms of improving the localization. Similarly, as I mentioned, value engineering activities also, we have been continuously doing. We are working with the supply chain. Even at the plant level also, we encourage our employees to come out with cost reduction ideas. We motivate the employees. These are all some of the activities we have been continuously doing to keep the cost under check. Thank you.
Sure. Thank you, sir. Any impact we are expecting in Q2 because of the June disruption, or we are fully caught up on production in the July and August? Any expectation over there, sir?
Fully caught up. In fact, most of the thing has already been done in July. Whatever little is left will be done in August and September. Everything will be done within this quarter. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have no further questions, ladies and gentlemen. I would now like to hand the conference over to Joseph George for closing remarks. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Davin. On behalf of the management of Hyundai Motor India Limited, I thank you all for joining the call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.
Thank you