Shah Rukh Khan with Hyundai India managing director J. I. Kim (right) at the launch of Elantra in New Delhi on Thursday. (PTI)

New Delhi, April 15: Hyundai Motor India, the country’s second-largest carmaker which has been battling rising prices of steel and other inputs, today said it will increase the prices of its Accent sedan by around 3 per cent.

A senior company official said the proposed hike ranging between Rs 17,000 and Rs 21,000 will come into affect from April 19 onwards.

J. I. Kim, managing director of Hyundai India, however, refused to specify the rise of its popular Santro Xing hatchback models, which aggressively competes with Maruti Udyog’s Wagon R and Zen hatchback models.

“The timing of the Santro price hike would be decided later in the month,” Kim said at the launch of the Elantra sedan.

Elantra, available in three variants — 1.8-litre GT, 1.8-litre GLS and 2.0-litre CRDi — and priced between Rs 8.69 lakh and Rs 10.49 lakh, would compete with Toyota Motor’s Corolla sedan, Skoda India’s Octavia and General Motors’ Chevrolet Optra.

Hyundai India president B. V. R. Subbu said the automaker expects to sell around 8,000 units of Elantra yearly. “We expect this A4 segment — where Elantra is positioned — will grow about 25 per cent from around 17,000-units reported last fiscal to March 2004,” Subbu said.

Analysts said Hyundai is waiting for Maruti’s response to increase the prices of its popular selling cars. The climate for sales has become tougher as Maruti, the country’s largest automaker, has fuelled a relentless price war by offering aggressive discounts.

“It’s very difficult to cope with the kind of discounts that are being offered,” said Subbu. “We are concerned and to remain competitive we try to absorb as much costs as possible.”

Prices of basic industrial materials such as steel are in an upward spiral and have nearly doubled over the last year, tracking a global trend. Steel, used as an input to manufacture automotive cast-iron products and components, has pushed up overall prices by around 2-3 per cent.

In May 2003, the automaker, a fully-owned subsidiary of South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motors, had affected a similar price hike of around 3.5 per cent.

Hyundai, which set up base in India in October 1998, currently has around 20 per cent share of the country’s new car market. It makes the Sonata sedans, besides Santro Xing and Accent, while it imports the sports-utility vehicle Terracan fully built from South Korea. It reported sales of 1,71,903 units in the recently concluded 2003-04 financial year (April-March), up 53 per cent from 1,12,502 units in the year-ago period.