Hyundai Motor India has chosen the H-speed-rated tubeless Apollo Acelere tyres as original fitment for its 1.2-litre Kappa-engined i20 small car. Apollo is already an OE supplier to the Santro.
Apollo, which has a close to 20 percent market share in the passenger car segment inclusive of OEMs and the aftermarket, plans to further capture market share with its new manufacturing facility coming up in Chennai by the end of the next fiscal.
At present Apollo Aceleres will be go on the i20 only for the Indian market. According to Satish Sharma, chief – India Operations, Apollo Tyres, “We would be supplying approximately 15,000 tyres per month for the i20. This tyre has been available in the after/replacement market from the time of its launch in October 2004. Apart from Hyundai, we already have General Motors and Skoda as our OEM partners for the Acelere range of tyres.”
Apollo Tyres is now in talks with major automotive manufacturers, including the likes of Daimler, Volkswagen and Ford for exclusive tie-ups.
Also, recently, Apollo Tyres was the sole Indian tyre manufacturer which participated in the IZB 2008 Expo. The international expo, jointly organised by the Volkswagen Group and the City of Wolfsburg, Germany, is stated to be the world’s biggest business-to-business (B2B) auto expo. At Wolfsburg Apollo received approval as OE supplier to Volkswagen’s Polo which is expected to be launched in India soon.