It seems every time you read a story about Hyundai these days, it includes something about the brand’s tremendous growth. Unfortunately for Hyundai, positive sales figures aren’t a reality everywhere – like in its home-market of South Korea.While worldwide sales in the month of June rose 4.6 percent to 312,388 vehicles, in Korea the number dropped 1.2 percent from the previous month to 48,643 units. And while a one-month blip might not be reason to panic, June actually marks the third consecutive month of losses for Hyundai as domestic sales have dropped to a 10 month low.
Reasons for the decline include competition from newly looming foreign automakers like Toyota and Honda. Taking a substantially larger chunk out of Hyundai's potential sales, however, is its sister-company Kia. While Hyundai’s sales slumped, Kia’s exploded with sales of 178,391 vehicles in June, marking a 49 percent increase for first-half sales in 2010. The recently released K5 mid-size sedan (Optima/Magentis elsewhere) topped the mid-size sales, dethroning the reigning champion Hyundai Sonata and marking the first time ever of such an accomplishment for Kia.
Korean market experts suggest the real issue is a lack of new product from Hyundai. However, with the upcoming arrivals of the redesigned Accent (Verna) and Elantra (Avante), as well as the highly anticipated Veloster, Hyundai is showing itself to the world that it is not ready to concede to its rivals just yet.
[Source: The Chosun Ilbo]
