Hyundai Motor India on Tuesday flagged off maiden shipment of its flagship 'Santro' brand of passenger cars to European markets of Italy, Spain and Netherlands.

The first consignment despatched from the Chennai port consists of 1500 units of Santro to be marketed in Europe under the brand name "New Atos Prime" at a price of over euro 8500, J I Kim, managing director of the company told reporters.

Of this, 710 units are bound for Italy, 690 for Spain and 100 units for Netherlands. The company's exports in 2002 were 8000 units, 80 per cent of which were Santros and the rest Accent, the company's mid-size car, mainly to markets like Algeria, Morocco, Indonesia, Colombo, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

"A strong quality focus and benchmarking with global best practices has helped us carve a good market for our cars in a competitive market like Europe without the 'manufactured in India' stigma and most importantly without having to discount our prices," Kim said.