sharne
01-03-2009, 07:15 AM
In the mid-1990s, before the Asian financial crisis, Korea's car manufacturers used to boast about their ambitions to be among the world's top five car makers within a decade.
There were three big car firms then, in fierce competition with one another - Hyundai, Kia and Daewoo. The 1997 shock brought consolidationHyundai took over Kia, Daewoo was broken up and its car business acquired by General Motors, and smaller car makers Samsung and SsangYong came under the,control of Renault and Shanghai Automotive respectively.
The survivors showed a new realism in their future projections no longer did they have one set of super-optimistic figures for public consumption while internally working to more modest targets. Quietly and without fuss, the Hyundai-Kia group has moved into fifth place in the global automotive sales league.
Furthermore, as Kun-Hee Ahn, president of Hyundai Motors Europe, said recently, even in the face of declining markets in Europe and the USA 'the economics of the business remain very sound'.
Hyundai and Kia are close to completing a new strategy of localmanufacturing which includes plants for both marques in Europe and the US, setting up in Russia, and an increase in production in India.
Now they are ready for what Ahn calls the 'second quantum leap' in sales and market share, which Hyundai hopes will allow it to motor closer to Volkswagen and Ford in third and fourth places in world sales charts.
Until recently, Korean cars were regarded in Europe as cheap and cheerful the bargain basement of car sales. Hyundai and Kia learned from the Japanese how to organise an efficient car factory and can now claim to have the most modern car plants in Europe and the USA.
423
The first European product from the group was the Kia C'eed, made at the plant established in Zilina in the Slovak Republic which worked well right from the start in 2007 and produces cars of a standard high enough to justify an industry-leading seven¬year warranty. Last year the Cee'd made it on to the short list for the Car of the Year in Europe - something unthinkable a few years ago.
In parallel with the design and development of inexpensive family cars for Europe, Hyundai embarked on an ambitious programme for the premium sector, focused both on business and official use in Korea and on the biggest market for luxury cars, the USA.
This was Toyota's Lexus and Nissan's Infiniti all over again and Hyundai seriously considered setting up a separate premium brand. It decided not to but the first car of this type, the Genesis, does not carry the Hyundai badge; instead it has a purposely ambiguous logo above the Mercedeslike grille.
I drove the Genesis in the USA recently and I was impressed. Its proposition is: the space of a BMW 7 Series, the size of a 5 Series and the price of a 3 Series. I tested the Genesis V8 in parallel with the Lexus GS460 and concluded that it was, overall, the superior car.
Hyundai is expecting Genesis to sell well in the Middle East, in Russia and of course in the Korea n domestic market. It deserves to succeed in America but time will tell whether status conscious buyers there will embrace a lower cost rival to a BMW, Lexus or Mercedes.
Hyundai's cars for Europe are gradually being re-named as the 'i' series. The i30, its equivalent of the Cee'd, will soon be produced in its plant at Nosovice, Czech Republic. But what most clearly illustrates the company's global reach is its decision to make the smaller i10 and i20 models in its factory in India - for all markets, including Korea.
There were three big car firms then, in fierce competition with one another - Hyundai, Kia and Daewoo. The 1997 shock brought consolidationHyundai took over Kia, Daewoo was broken up and its car business acquired by General Motors, and smaller car makers Samsung and SsangYong came under the,control of Renault and Shanghai Automotive respectively.
The survivors showed a new realism in their future projections no longer did they have one set of super-optimistic figures for public consumption while internally working to more modest targets. Quietly and without fuss, the Hyundai-Kia group has moved into fifth place in the global automotive sales league.
Furthermore, as Kun-Hee Ahn, president of Hyundai Motors Europe, said recently, even in the face of declining markets in Europe and the USA 'the economics of the business remain very sound'.
Hyundai and Kia are close to completing a new strategy of localmanufacturing which includes plants for both marques in Europe and the US, setting up in Russia, and an increase in production in India.
Now they are ready for what Ahn calls the 'second quantum leap' in sales and market share, which Hyundai hopes will allow it to motor closer to Volkswagen and Ford in third and fourth places in world sales charts.
Until recently, Korean cars were regarded in Europe as cheap and cheerful the bargain basement of car sales. Hyundai and Kia learned from the Japanese how to organise an efficient car factory and can now claim to have the most modern car plants in Europe and the USA.
423
The first European product from the group was the Kia C'eed, made at the plant established in Zilina in the Slovak Republic which worked well right from the start in 2007 and produces cars of a standard high enough to justify an industry-leading seven¬year warranty. Last year the Cee'd made it on to the short list for the Car of the Year in Europe - something unthinkable a few years ago.
In parallel with the design and development of inexpensive family cars for Europe, Hyundai embarked on an ambitious programme for the premium sector, focused both on business and official use in Korea and on the biggest market for luxury cars, the USA.
This was Toyota's Lexus and Nissan's Infiniti all over again and Hyundai seriously considered setting up a separate premium brand. It decided not to but the first car of this type, the Genesis, does not carry the Hyundai badge; instead it has a purposely ambiguous logo above the Mercedeslike grille.
I drove the Genesis in the USA recently and I was impressed. Its proposition is: the space of a BMW 7 Series, the size of a 5 Series and the price of a 3 Series. I tested the Genesis V8 in parallel with the Lexus GS460 and concluded that it was, overall, the superior car.
Hyundai is expecting Genesis to sell well in the Middle East, in Russia and of course in the Korea n domestic market. It deserves to succeed in America but time will tell whether status conscious buyers there will embrace a lower cost rival to a BMW, Lexus or Mercedes.
Hyundai's cars for Europe are gradually being re-named as the 'i' series. The i30, its equivalent of the Cee'd, will soon be produced in its plant at Nosovice, Czech Republic. But what most clearly illustrates the company's global reach is its decision to make the smaller i10 and i20 models in its factory in India - for all markets, including Korea.