Launched on July 10, 2023, Hyundai Motor India’s second compact SUV turns two years old today. Over the past 24 months, the Exter has contributed 21% to the company’s utility vehicle sales. In Q1 FY2026, with an estimated 17,188 units, the Exter’s share is 19 percent.
10 Jul 2025 | 890 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
The Exter, Hyundai Motor India’s second compact SUV after the Venue, turns two years old today. Launched on July 10, 2023, the Exter has sold a total of 165,899 units till end-June 2025 in the domestic market and 6,490 units have been exported till April 2025.
The Exter has ...
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The Exter, Hyundai Motor India’s second compact SUV after the Venue, turns two years old today. Launched on July 10, 2023, the Exter has sold a total of 165,899 units till end-June 2025 in the domestic market and 6,490 units have been exported till April 2025.
The Exter has proved to be a booster shot in the arm for the Korean car and SUV manufacturer, helping Hyundai maintain its No. 2 standing in the Indian passenger vehicle market. In the past 24 months since the Exter’s launch, Hyundai Motor India has sold a total of 804,554 SUVs. With 165,899 units, the Exter’s contribution to Hyundai India’s UV sales (since its launch) is a good 21%, below its compact SUV sibling Venue’s 30% (238,180 units) and the company’s best-selling model, the Creta midsize SUV’s 45% (362,224 units).
The Exter’s first major sales milestone came in August 2024, when it clocked 100,000 sales 13 months after launch – that’s one month more than the Venue took to hit the same mark. In April 2025, the Exter drove past cumulative wholesales of 150,000 units, taking 21 months to achieve the milestone. In terms of the 0-150,000 sales run, the Exter took the same 21 months as did the Kia Sonet but was slower than the Maruti Fronx (14 months) or the Tata Punch (15 months).
The hottest sub-segment of the UV segment bristles with a raft of rivals including the Tata Punch, Maruti Brezza, Tata Nexon, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Mahindra XUV300 and, more recently, the Skoda Kylaq. However, Exter’s chief rivals include what could rather be termed as mini or micro-SUVs – the Punch, Nissan Magnite, Citroen C3 and even the Maruti Suzuki WagonR due to the latter’s tall-boy design.
Nevertheless, reflective of the increased competition, the Exter’s sales run from 100,001 to 150,000 units has been much slower with the last 50,000 sales taking eight months.
BOXY-LOOKING, FEATURE-LADEN SUV
The Exter is based on the Grand i10 Nios hatchback and follows Hyundai’s ‘Parametric’ design language that employs boxy proportions and an upright stance to offers it an SUV appeal. At the front, the mini-SUV gets a split-headlamp setup with integrated ‘H’-shaped LED DRLs. The front fascia gets a wide, contrasting black grille, and a prominent chin with a faux silver skid plate. The side profile is characterised by flared wheel arches, diamond-cut alloy wheels, clean lines, and all-around body cladding that lends a robust look.
The Exter gets LED tail-lights at the rear, a shark-fin antennae, roof rails as well as a single-pane sunroof – a first-in-segment feature. On the inside, the car gets an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with over 60 connected car features under Hyundai’s Bluelink connectivity suite, as well as OTA updates. Hyundai also offers a factory-fitted dual-monitoring dashboard camera, as well as cruise control on the Exter.
The Exter is offered in five trim levels, all with six airbags and electronic stability control (ESC) – the two key requirements to score a four- or five-star rating in GNCAP’s latest crash protocol – as standard safety kit. The Exter is heavier compared to the Grand i10 Nios it is based upon and comes powered by a sole 1.2-litre, 82hp, four-cylinder, naturally-aspirational petrol engine, coupled with 5-speed MT or AMT options. This engine also powers the Venue compact SUV, Grand i10 Nios and the i20 hatchbacks.
What differentiates the Exter from its arch rival Punch is the presence of this refined, four-cylinder Kappa petrol mill and the segment-first paddle shifters on AMT variants that make it one of the smoothest-shifting AMT units in the market. However, the Punch scores higher when it comes to the overall SUV-centric styling, larger seats, and more robust underpinnings.
Pricing for the Exter, which is one of the smallest compact SUVs in India, starts at Rs 600,000 (ex-showroom). While Hyundai claims a fuel economy rating of 19.4kpl for the manual and 19.2kpl for the automatic, the factory-fitted CNG option offers a much superior fuel economy of 27.10kpl in comparison. Users report city efficiency in the 12-14kpl band and highway economy in the 18-20kpl range, thereby remaining within Hyundai's claimed spectrum.
EXTER CONTRIBUTES 19% TO HYUNDAI INDIA’S SUV SALES IN Q1 FY2026
In the first three months of FY2026, Hyundai Motor India has dispatched an estimated 90,515 SUVs to its dealers across the country. This total is down 10% YoY (Q1 FY2025: 100,745 SUVs). The Q1 FY2026 SUV sales have contributed 68.43% to Hyundai Motor India’s total passenger vehicle wholesales of 132,259 units. This is slightly higher than the 67.40% in Q1 FY2025. April 2025 (31,483 SUVs) has the highest monthly share of 71 percent (see data table below).
In Q1 FY2026 (April-June 2025), the Exter has sold an estimated 17,188 units, down by 1% (Q1 FY2025: 17,330 units), which constitutes a 19% share of the company’s total UV sales in the first three months of the current fiscal.
Since its launch, the Exter has vaulted into the third best-selling SUV for the Korean OEM, after the market-leading Hyundai Creta midsize SUV and the Venue compact SUV. In FY2025, the Exter sold 77,412 units and accounted for 19% of Hyundai’s total SUV sales of 410,199 units, and 13% of passenger vehicle sales of 598,666 units.
The Exter, which was the first Hyundai CNG model to get dual-cylinder technology in July 2024, was ranked No. 7 in the Top 10 compact SUVs of FY2025, which is creditable for this ultra-competitive compact SUV segment, which has all of 20 models. It is estimated that between 20,000-22,000 entry-level compact SUVs are sold each month.
(With inputs from Mayank Dhingra)