Hyundai Plant Sales By Model & Nation : 2015

The Accent / Verna was the most popular Hyundai in 2015

Plant retail sales globally for Hyundai cars were flat for 2015, but an increase of 5.5% for commercial vehicles got the total up 0.3% at just under 5 million units. 18% of all cars were the Verna / Accent model, which passed the usual favourite Avante / Elantra. A new model Avante released in 2015 may redress that for 2016. I counted some models under the Accent total instead of as stand alone models because they are based on the Accent. There are more grey areas now with models.

The compact crossover ix25 seems destined just for emerging markets, as is the Eon city car already. At the other end of the spectrum, things are changing. The Won currency is higher and now there has been seven consecutive drops in quarterly profits for Hyundai. It wants to lift Hyundai's quality image and also to get into the very profitable premium segment. To that end the Genesis model will become a separate branding and the even more exclusive Equus model will become part of that.

Which brings me to a model I don't understand fully, the Aslan. It is an executive car which is only for the local market, which is the part I don't get. The numbers it is made in are limited, which makes me wonder how it is viable.

11	12	13	14	15	Model	2015	%	+/-
2	2	2	2	1	Verna / Accent	843,916	18.1%	-5.0%
					-Korea	291,536		3.2%
					-China	213,678		-9.5%
					-Brazil	174,420		-2.7%
					-Russia	129,000		-2.5%
					-India	35,282		-39.0%
1	1	1	1	2	Avante / Elantra	811,064	17.4%	-12.6%
					-China	323,110		-22.5%
					-Korea	314,101		-9.3%
					-USA	172,017		6.5%
					-India	1,836		-46.4%
4	4	3	3	3	Tuscon / ix35	580,614	12.4%	7.5%
					-Korea	217,723		10.9%
					-Czech Rep	203,427		17.9%
					-China	159,464		-7.0%
3	3	4	4	4	Sonata / i40	489,823	10.5%	-4.1%
					-USA	208,347		-11.0%
					-Korea	205,460		-3.0%
					-China	75,867		17.6%
					-India	149		40.6%
5	6	6	6	5	i10	415,752	8.9%	4.2%
					-India	311,904		4.9%
					-Turkey	103,848		2.3%
6	5	5	5	6	Sante Fe	385,324	8.3%	-6.0%
					-Korea	236,564		3.3%
					-USA	114,125		5.8%
					-China	33,355		-53.3%
					-India	1,280		-27.6%
8	8	8	7	7	i20	275,548	5.9%	26.1%
					-India	152,887		24.5%
					-Turkey	122,661		28.1%
7	7	7	8	8	i30	182,741	3.9%	-0.4%
					-Czech Rep	104,666		5.0%
					-Korea	78,075		-6.8%
-	-	-	16	9	ix25	156,040	3.3%	531.2%
					-China	102,755		315.7%
					-India	53,285		n/a
-	-	-	9	10	Mistra	154,597	3.3%	14.5%
					-China	154,597
9	9	9	10	11	Grandeur	100,150	2.1%	-8.3%
					-Korea	100,150
15	10	10	11	12	Eon	86,647	1.9%	-13.0%
					-India	86,647
12	14	13	12	13	Genesis	77,042	1.7%	7.1%
					-Korea	77,042
11	11	11	13	14	Veloster	42,416	0.9%	-17.8%
					-Korea	42,416
13	13	14	14	15	ix20	34,307	0.7%	-3.8%
					-Czech Rep	34,307
-	-	-	20	16	Aslan	8,590	0.2%	272.5%
					-Korea	8,590
17	17	15	17	17	Equus / EQ900	8,345	0.2%	-33.6%
					-Korea	8,345
16	16	16	18	18	Genesis	7,918	0.2%	-31.2%
					-Korea	7,918
14	15	17	19	19	ix55 / Vera Cruz	2,949	0.1%	-40.0%
					-Korea	2,949
					Others	4,635	0.1%	n/a
					Total Car	4,668,418		0.0%
					Total CV	308,236		5.5%
					Grand Total	4,976,654		0.3%

Data source: Hyundai Motors.

Summary: Hyundai probably needs to lift its image and sell at better prices while Kia stays at the mainstream level. Of course, convincing customers your product is moving up in quality takes time. You also have to make sure the quality is worthy of the new status now claimed. Sales may be lower too when in this transitional period. It's like walking a tightrope, balancing sufficient volume with not chasing sales with sharp pricing. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Can the Genesis model take on and beat the established premium marques?