Within months of its launch in late 1998, with every well-known global automobile brand jockeying for a foothold in a small-car market almost monopolized by Maruti Udyog Limited, Hyundai Motor India’s debut production, the Santro, emerged as a force to reckon with. The first car to be conceptualized and designed for – and then developed and manufactured in – India, the ‘Sunshine Car’ has, over a period of sixteen years, set the record for the quickest small car brand to go from zero to one million units sold. It achieved profitability for Hyundai at an unprecedented speed and made an impressive global impact as a made-in-India automobile in markets as diverse as Algeria and Zimbabwe, Western Europe and North America.

In Santro: The Car That Built a Company, BVR Subbu, who spearheaded much of the Santro’s success, reveals the hitherto untold story of how this small car made such a big impact. Vivid anecdotes detail the challenges of introducing a new product in a new market, the canny business strategies that were employed to get the better of rival brands, the unforgettable marketing campaigns that made all the difference – and the thrills of the high-stakes power battles and everyday drama that characterize corporate India.

By turns revelatory, insightful and delightfully engaging, this is a business story with a difference about a car like no other.