Hyundai Motor Delivers Official
Cars for World Cup Finals

A total of 1,250 Hyundai cars are virtually 'Moving'ad signboards during the competition

Hyundai Motor has delivered to the Organizing Committee of the 2006 FIFA World Cup team a total of 1,250 Hyundai vehicles that will transport VIPs and footballers from the globe during the World Cup finals in Germany.
A ceremony for delivering the official cars of the World Cup finals was held at the Frankfurt World Cup Stadium on May 5, with Franz Beckenbauer, chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Horst R. Schmidt, secretary general of the German Football Association and vice chairman of the Organizing Committee and Lee Soo-gil, vice president in charge of overseas marketing at Hyundai Motor, participating.
The official vehicles, to be used by such VIPS as FIFA Chairman Joseph Sepp Blatter and Organizing Committee Chairman Beckenbauer and others from around the world comprise of about 1,000 cars of seven models, including Equus, Grandeur (TG), Sonata (NF), Santa Fe and Trajet.
Hyundai Motor also provides 32 buses which will transport 32 teams participating in the World Cup finals as well as 250 buses used for media people, World Cup finals staff and volunteers.
Two environmentally-friendly Tucson Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) are also delivered to the Organizing Committee to publicize Hyundai Motor's technological prowess in the next-generation vehicle category.
Hyundai Motor is one of the 15 Official Partners of the 2006 FIFA World Cups together with Adidas, Coca-Cola, MasterCard and Toshiba.
Hyundai Motor's provision of official cars to the Organizing Committee would serve as an opportunity to publicize Hyundai models'excellent performances and quality, and the exposure of the Hyundai brand through a large-size sticker combining World Cup emblem and Hyundai Motor logo will bring about indirect advertising, company officials said.
Hyundai Motor expects that the Hyundai brand of the bus for each team would be exposed heavily by the coverage of their respective media people.
A Hyundai Motor official expressed the hope that the use of Hyundai cars by press corps, VIPs and other opinion leaders from around the world will be an occasion for themselves to know their performances and quality and the massive exposures during the World Cup finals will raise its brand profile.
Besides, making the most use of its rights as the official partner of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Hyundai Motor plans to conduct an aggressive World Cup marketing blitz designed to maximize publicity of its models and improve its brand.
Hyundai Motor will set up advertising signboards at stadiums in a bid to maximize the global exposure of TV coverage, while car display pavilions will be installed within stadiums. The company also plans to conduct such promotion events as ticket promotion for customers and invitation programs for VIPs and media corps.
Last year, the Korean auto manufacturer offered a lottery in time for the Final Drawing for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Company held last December 9 in Germany. The Final Draw, televised live worldwide, saw the 32 teams draw into eight groups of four for the World Cup finals.
Applicants who gave the correct answer to one or more countries which were in the same group as Korea were drawn and presented with prizes. People were asked to pick up three countries among the 32 countries during the period between October 23 and December 9.
HYUNDAI's SALES REVENUE UP 11.4 %.
Hyundai Motor Co.' worldwide unit sales rose 4.4 percent in the first quarter to 418,437 units earning an 11.2 percent increase in sales revenues to 6.8615 trillion won. As anticipated, the strengthening of the Korean won against the US dollar created a drag on profitability as did increased costs for materials and labor.
Hyundai's gross profit rose 11.4 percent to 1.3004 trillion won but the net profit slid by 37.5 percent to 318.8 billion won while the recurring or ordinary profit fell by 26 percent to 491.4 billion won.
Export sales from Hyundai's three Korean factories accounted for 276,678 units (a 1.8 percent y-o-y decline owing to the ramp up of production at overseas plants in the United States, India, China and Turkey) valued at 3.9673 trillion won, a decline of 0.8 percent over the same quarter last year. nw

Hyundai Motor, the official partner of he 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, has delivered official cars for the finals.