Arousing Fear in Major Carmakers

Hyundai, Kia to go full blast to expand sales 16 pct from 2009 with five new car models

"Watch out for Hyundai’s i-20 sedans.” CEO Martin Winterkorn of the Volkswagen Group, the world’s largest carmaker after taking over Suzuki Motor and Porsche last year, issued that warning at a year-end meeting of world regional managers of the automotive group at the end of 2009.
He was obviously concerned with the growth of Hyundai Motor in Europe with new models like the i-20 sedan as the world car market share of both Hyundai and its sister Kia Motors expanded to 7.7 percent in 2009 from 6.5 percent in 2008. During that same period, most of its rival carmakers around the world have been struggling due to reduced demand for cars triggered by the economic slump.
Hyundai and Kia are up again and plan to expand their world car market share to 8 percent by selling 5.4 million cars this year, 16 percent more than last year, about 2.7 times the projected 6 percent increase in car sales around the world this year from that of 2009.
Those companies are betting on the world economy’s recovery and expanding sales of cars in countries like India and China this year. Kia Motors will complete the construction of its car plant in Georgia in the United States on Feb. 26 and Hyundai will break ground on the construction of its car plants in China (300,000 cars per year) and Brazil (100,000 cars per year) either in March or April. The company will complete the construction of its car plant in Russia with an annual capacity of 100,000 cars in 2011.
Both Hyundai and Kia will be able to produce 6.76 million cars annually in 2012, including 3.33 million cars at home, to rank fourth or fifth among the world’s automakers in terms of annual production.
Both Hyundai and Kia are among the official sponsors of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and plan on taking advantage of the global sports event in their marketing in Europe centered around the i series of Hyundai sedans ― i-10, i-20, and i-30 ― which are already popular in Western Europe. Hyundai plans to introduce the Tucson ix, a popular SUV made to meet all of Europe’s environmental requirements.
Kia, too, is poised to set off a storm with its intensive sales campaigns around the world, especially for the latest model of the C’eed introduced to the market around year-end last year and the mini-sedan Venga.
Both Hyundai and Kia don’t want to lose the momentum for sales of their cars in the U.S.; the Alabama plant will turn out the new Sonata model for the U.S. market, while Kia will produce the Sorrento R at its Georgia plant. The company will keep running ads during a number of NBA games.
The two automakers will also push the sales of their cars in China, encouraged by their record sales of 800,000 cars in the neighboring country. They will sell new models tailored to the preferences of local customers including the Avante modified to suit Chinese customers’ demands, the i30 and the Tucson ix, officials of the automakers said.
At home, the automakers are poised to introduce five new car models. Kia will put on the market the follow up to the Sportage, which was first sold 17 years ago. The new model is the first one in five years. In May, Kia will begin selling the new Lotze model with six gears powered by the Ceta II engine, which is completely different from the model introduced four years ago.
Hyundai is also set to introduce the new Avante in August, brand new in all aspects, which will be followed by the new Grandeur and the Verna at the end of the year, the company said.
With the integrated steel mill going on stream at Hyundai Steel’s Dangjin plant, both Hyundai and Kia will use the high-quality hot coil and steel plates produced at the steel mill in place of imported steel plates, which will improve the quality of their cars. nw

New sedans introduced to the market recently by Hyundai Motor and its sister Kia Motors.

Chairman Chung Mong-koo of Hyunai-Kia Automotive Group, delivers a speech at the group’s New Year ceremony on Jan. 4.