Hyundai's charge gains momentum
November 27, 2009
Achieving a significant gain in new passenger vehicle sales this year in defiance of a depressed market hasn't satisfied Hyundai New Zealand.
It expects to finish the year as the fourth most popular brand with new car buyers, and to sell 5000 vehicles, including vans, normally separately counted as light commercials.
The combined tally would give Hyundai New Zealand a seven percent share of the new vehicle market.
That's a big leap forward for a company that, in 2004, held just 2.9 percent market share. But it's still not enough.
Yesterday company high-ups revealed the ultimate aim is to go higher still, bumping aside Holden then Ford to reach No.2. And then? The final step is a big one - usurping Toyota.
Realitically, without utility vehicles to take on the Hilux, the country's top-selling load-alls, it lacks a vital ace card.
"There is no utility vehicle available from Hyundai and none planned," said Hyundai New Zealand executive director Philip Eustace.
"While utes are obviously big here and in Australia, Hyundai does not see them as having global attraction."
Even so, Hyundai is still intent on maintaining its impressive rate of climb.
"We will set our benchmark even higher for 2010. To be brutally honest, seven percent is not enough," national sales manager Tom Ruddenklau told Yahoo!Xtra.
"When we sat down in 2006 and put together our long-term strategy, we aimed to double our market share ... so certainly next year, for the next three years, we have some very aggressive targets for further growth.
"We have not finished. We're focussing toward that 9-10 percent market share."
That would mean selling 10,000 cars a year.
"It's going to take us a few years to get there ... we're gunning for No.1 in pure passenger vehicle sales. It's a big goal, but you've got to have big goals."
Hyundai's performance this year has been impressive. The new car market is down 29.2 percent year to date.
Australia has experienced the same success, but on a per of head of population basis, New Zealand is more of a star performer.
Hyundai has been neck and neck with Mazda this year. The Korean concern got ahead in September, then was beaten - by 11 units - in October. There is confidence a comeback will come out of this month and next.
To give an idea of how much the market has shrunk, last year Hyundai NZ sold 4404 cars to be No.7.
That position is now under threat from Kia, a Hyundai-owned subsidiary sharing platforms and drivetrains but rarely styling. The brands operate independently here.
Both looked good in October, the latest month for stats and a bleak one generally for the industry, with sales failing to crack 7000 for the first time in October since 1998.
Hyundai consolidated, with 407 sales making for a 6.8 percent climb and a 5.9 per cent overall share, but its sibling was the month's biggest mover - 213 sales represented a 142 percent improvement on October, 2008.
Hyundai's gain puts it ahead of Suzuki, a strong performer with the Swift, and Honda. It got ahead of Nissan and Mitsubishi last year.
If current sales trends continue, it is not inconceivable that Holden and perhaps even Ford could fall to Hyundai in the coming year.
Holden has had two weak years - ironically, in part because customers have not taken to most of the cars it gets out of Korea.
Its fortunes rose with the release in April of the Cruze, also Korean-assembled but much more reflective of European design, but not enough for that sedan to figure in last month's individual top 10.
The gradual drop in demand for large Australian cars continues to affect its staple product, Commodore. While Commodore maintained position as the country's No.2 choice last month, it is Holden's only big seller.
Ford has done better, though less off the backs of Aussie staples the Falcon and Territory, than from its Europeans - Mondeo, Focus and Fiesta.
But the Blue Oval's count was still down in 2008, to 8459 registrations, and efforts to lift its presence in the diesel passenger car market have been stymied by Hyundai, the market's top diesel passenger maker all this year. Hyundai is also much stronger in sales of sports utilities.
Toyota? That's a much harder nut to crack, not least because the Palmerston North-headquartered concern is a giant.
In repeating last year's market-dominant tally of almost 15,000 registrations, as it seems set to do, it will have sold three times as many passenger vehicles as Hyundai in '09 ... and almost twice as many as the market runnerup.
Volume is what Toyota New Zealand is all about, some say at any cost. It is the pre-eminent player in the price-driven fleet/rental business. At least 60 percent of its annual volume goes to work, and it is among the few brands still content to enter into guaranteed buy-backs on rental cars.
Toyota New Zealand cites Hyundai as its biggest competitor for fleet contracts, and says currency rates that hammer the Japanese Yen strongly favour the Korean Won, to the point of Hyundai benefiting from a 40 percent price advantage - regardless that their competing product usually carry similar retail stickers.
Hyundai's men concede they do have some currency advantage, but company chairman Philip Eustace says Toyota is also mischief-making. "There is a difference, but not that much of one."
At the end of the day, he still cannot match the Japanese giant's discounting practices.
"We cannot discount at the level they are willing to go to. Ultimately, we are still in the business of making money from our cars."
Hyundai had never sold more than 4000 passenger vehicles a year until 2006, though it came close in the late 1990s, before falling back. Mr Ruddenklau said the latest surge comes from the company having reset its objectives in 2006, which involved a dealer network reshape. New product also began to appear. It achieved 4077 sales in 2006 and 4480 the next year.
Last year's result was based heavily on a good run for the teensy Getz, the right car to have when fuel prices rocketed (Suzuki's Swift likewise), and the Tucson and Santa Fe sports utes. Together they claimed 75 percent of all sales.
The Getz continues to shine this year - a slightly odd position given it's Hyundai's oldest car and is effectively on runout, awaiting the replacement i20 in March - though expectation is that the SUVs can still do the job, despite a slump in the recreational vehicle market.
A powerful new R-Series diesel engine for the refurbished Santa Fe, shown to media yesterday, will also be seen in 2.0-litre form in the Tucson replacement, the iX35, here from February.
Hyundai has more new product arriving in 2010 with two forms of a new sedan to replace the Sonata. Effectively emulating Honda's strategy of offering two kinds of Accord, Hyundai will have a larger model called the i50, with the new direct-injection petrol engine. This car is based on the US-market Sonata.
Later comes a smaller, European edition, called the i40, which will bring at least one new diesel, and a wagon variant.
Further into the future, there's no potential to bring in the hot V8 Genesis sports coupe after its facelift in 2011 and also the Lexus-rivalling Equus sedan.
Kia is also riding the momentum from five new model releases, including Sorento and Cerato Koup, and changes to the dealer network. This time last year, Kia was in runout on several models. Kia sales were expected to soften this month due to stock shortages.
The 2.2-litre R-Series diesel and six-speed automatic now in the Santa Fe is, of course, the same drivetrain Kia launched six weeks ago in its new Sorento - effectively a rebody of Hyundai's already two-year-old product.
The four-cylinder produces the same 145kW of power at 3800rpm and 436Nm of torque at 1800rpm (421Nm for the manual) in both vehicles and and identical overall fuel consumption of 7.5L/100km.
In Sorento, the R engine replaced an elderly 2.5-litre diesel engine - in fact, the car replaced an elderly model.
Not the same for Santa Fe. We already had the new bodyshape, and this mill usurps another 2.2-litre married to a five-speed auto. It was less economical and 27 percent less powerful.
Impressions gained on the Sorento launch were reinforced by driving the Santa Fe through the south Waikato yesterday; it is a smooth and powerful engine, married to a slick-shifting transmission. Despite being a large vehicle, handling is tidy for the breed.
Hyundai's diesel models are more expensive that Kia's, and it has three derivatives against four, all automatic and four-wheel-drive.
Santa Fe continues in two petrol editions, a 2.4-litre five-seater that at $52,990 is the cheapest offering and a front-drive 3.2-litre V6 that, at $59,990, is the second dearest.
The diesel line starts with a $58,490 five-seater, followed by a $59,990 seven-seater, both with cloth seats, then tops with a $65,990 Elite version.
By comparison, Kia is all diesel. Sorento comes in seven-seater four-wheel-drive auto diesel form, at $55,990 EX and $63,990 Limited, plus a five-seat four-wheel-drive manual LX at $49,990 and a seven-seat front drive auto LX at $46,990. Hyundai says it can get a manual four-wheel-drive Santa Fe should customers want it.
Visual alterations to the vehicle are modest, but it upgrades within the cabin to a proximity key with a push button start and, on the Elite, a reversing camera.
The Santa Fe is one of the safest cars in its class, setting the benchmark for vehicle safety in the SUV segment. Australasian ANCAP tests awarded the Santa Fe an overall five star rating demonstrating the extreme safety and solidarity of the model.
Rain sensing wipers, electric seats, and full i-pod connectivity are also great features for the family.
Hyundai New Zealand continues its stance on uncompromised safety standards across range; the Santa Fe has an advanced Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) as well as Electronic Brake-Force Distribution (EBD), which applies the optimum pressure to individual brakes in all braking situations.
The vehicle also features a new rollover sensor, which triggers the side airbags, and seatbelt pretensioners for front seat passengers in the event the vehicle is overturned. This allows the kind of timely response that is important, especially in SUV vehicles, Hyundai asserts.
The Santa Fe also features the BAS (Brake Assist system), which applies maximum force to the brakes during emergency stopping situations.
What this means to you: Hyundai is a brand on the move - and it's moving fast.
It expects to finish the year as the fourth most popular brand with new car buyers, and to sell 5000 vehicles, including vans, normally separately counted as light commercials.
The combined tally would give Hyundai New Zealand a seven percent share of the new vehicle market.
That's a big leap forward for a company that, in 2004, held just 2.9 percent market share. But it's still not enough.
Yesterday company high-ups revealed the ultimate aim is to go higher still, bumping aside Holden then Ford to reach No.2. And then? The final step is a big one - usurping Toyota.
Realitically, without utility vehicles to take on the Hilux, the country's top-selling load-alls, it lacks a vital ace card.
"There is no utility vehicle available from Hyundai and none planned," said Hyundai New Zealand executive director Philip Eustace.
"While utes are obviously big here and in Australia, Hyundai does not see them as having global attraction."
Even so, Hyundai is still intent on maintaining its impressive rate of climb.
"We will set our benchmark even higher for 2010. To be brutally honest, seven percent is not enough," national sales manager Tom Ruddenklau told Yahoo!Xtra.
"When we sat down in 2006 and put together our long-term strategy, we aimed to double our market share ... so certainly next year, for the next three years, we have some very aggressive targets for further growth.
"We have not finished. We're focussing toward that 9-10 percent market share."
That would mean selling 10,000 cars a year.
"It's going to take us a few years to get there ... we're gunning for No.1 in pure passenger vehicle sales. It's a big goal, but you've got to have big goals."
Hyundai's performance this year has been impressive. The new car market is down 29.2 percent year to date.
Australia has experienced the same success, but on a per of head of population basis, New Zealand is more of a star performer.
Hyundai has been neck and neck with Mazda this year. The Korean concern got ahead in September, then was beaten - by 11 units - in October. There is confidence a comeback will come out of this month and next.
To give an idea of how much the market has shrunk, last year Hyundai NZ sold 4404 cars to be No.7.
That position is now under threat from Kia, a Hyundai-owned subsidiary sharing platforms and drivetrains but rarely styling. The brands operate independently here.
Both looked good in October, the latest month for stats and a bleak one generally for the industry, with sales failing to crack 7000 for the first time in October since 1998.
Hyundai consolidated, with 407 sales making for a 6.8 percent climb and a 5.9 per cent overall share, but its sibling was the month's biggest mover - 213 sales represented a 142 percent improvement on October, 2008.
Hyundai's gain puts it ahead of Suzuki, a strong performer with the Swift, and Honda. It got ahead of Nissan and Mitsubishi last year.
If current sales trends continue, it is not inconceivable that Holden and perhaps even Ford could fall to Hyundai in the coming year.
Holden has had two weak years - ironically, in part because customers have not taken to most of the cars it gets out of Korea.
Its fortunes rose with the release in April of the Cruze, also Korean-assembled but much more reflective of European design, but not enough for that sedan to figure in last month's individual top 10.
The gradual drop in demand for large Australian cars continues to affect its staple product, Commodore. While Commodore maintained position as the country's No.2 choice last month, it is Holden's only big seller.
Ford has done better, though less off the backs of Aussie staples the Falcon and Territory, than from its Europeans - Mondeo, Focus and Fiesta.
But the Blue Oval's count was still down in 2008, to 8459 registrations, and efforts to lift its presence in the diesel passenger car market have been stymied by Hyundai, the market's top diesel passenger maker all this year. Hyundai is also much stronger in sales of sports utilities.
Toyota? That's a much harder nut to crack, not least because the Palmerston North-headquartered concern is a giant.
In repeating last year's market-dominant tally of almost 15,000 registrations, as it seems set to do, it will have sold three times as many passenger vehicles as Hyundai in '09 ... and almost twice as many as the market runnerup.
Volume is what Toyota New Zealand is all about, some say at any cost. It is the pre-eminent player in the price-driven fleet/rental business. At least 60 percent of its annual volume goes to work, and it is among the few brands still content to enter into guaranteed buy-backs on rental cars.
Toyota New Zealand cites Hyundai as its biggest competitor for fleet contracts, and says currency rates that hammer the Japanese Yen strongly favour the Korean Won, to the point of Hyundai benefiting from a 40 percent price advantage - regardless that their competing product usually carry similar retail stickers.
Hyundai's men concede they do have some currency advantage, but company chairman Philip Eustace says Toyota is also mischief-making. "There is a difference, but not that much of one."
At the end of the day, he still cannot match the Japanese giant's discounting practices.
"We cannot discount at the level they are willing to go to. Ultimately, we are still in the business of making money from our cars."
Hyundai had never sold more than 4000 passenger vehicles a year until 2006, though it came close in the late 1990s, before falling back. Mr Ruddenklau said the latest surge comes from the company having reset its objectives in 2006, which involved a dealer network reshape. New product also began to appear. It achieved 4077 sales in 2006 and 4480 the next year.
Last year's result was based heavily on a good run for the teensy Getz, the right car to have when fuel prices rocketed (Suzuki's Swift likewise), and the Tucson and Santa Fe sports utes. Together they claimed 75 percent of all sales.
The Getz continues to shine this year - a slightly odd position given it's Hyundai's oldest car and is effectively on runout, awaiting the replacement i20 in March - though expectation is that the SUVs can still do the job, despite a slump in the recreational vehicle market.
A powerful new R-Series diesel engine for the refurbished Santa Fe, shown to media yesterday, will also be seen in 2.0-litre form in the Tucson replacement, the iX35, here from February.
Hyundai has more new product arriving in 2010 with two forms of a new sedan to replace the Sonata. Effectively emulating Honda's strategy of offering two kinds of Accord, Hyundai will have a larger model called the i50, with the new direct-injection petrol engine. This car is based on the US-market Sonata.
Later comes a smaller, European edition, called the i40, which will bring at least one new diesel, and a wagon variant.
Further into the future, there's no potential to bring in the hot V8 Genesis sports coupe after its facelift in 2011 and also the Lexus-rivalling Equus sedan.
Kia is also riding the momentum from five new model releases, including Sorento and Cerato Koup, and changes to the dealer network. This time last year, Kia was in runout on several models. Kia sales were expected to soften this month due to stock shortages.
The 2.2-litre R-Series diesel and six-speed automatic now in the Santa Fe is, of course, the same drivetrain Kia launched six weeks ago in its new Sorento - effectively a rebody of Hyundai's already two-year-old product.
The four-cylinder produces the same 145kW of power at 3800rpm and 436Nm of torque at 1800rpm (421Nm for the manual) in both vehicles and and identical overall fuel consumption of 7.5L/100km.
In Sorento, the R engine replaced an elderly 2.5-litre diesel engine - in fact, the car replaced an elderly model.
Not the same for Santa Fe. We already had the new bodyshape, and this mill usurps another 2.2-litre married to a five-speed auto. It was less economical and 27 percent less powerful.
Impressions gained on the Sorento launch were reinforced by driving the Santa Fe through the south Waikato yesterday; it is a smooth and powerful engine, married to a slick-shifting transmission. Despite being a large vehicle, handling is tidy for the breed.
Hyundai's diesel models are more expensive that Kia's, and it has three derivatives against four, all automatic and four-wheel-drive.
Santa Fe continues in two petrol editions, a 2.4-litre five-seater that at $52,990 is the cheapest offering and a front-drive 3.2-litre V6 that, at $59,990, is the second dearest.
The diesel line starts with a $58,490 five-seater, followed by a $59,990 seven-seater, both with cloth seats, then tops with a $65,990 Elite version.
By comparison, Kia is all diesel. Sorento comes in seven-seater four-wheel-drive auto diesel form, at $55,990 EX and $63,990 Limited, plus a five-seat four-wheel-drive manual LX at $49,990 and a seven-seat front drive auto LX at $46,990. Hyundai says it can get a manual four-wheel-drive Santa Fe should customers want it.
Visual alterations to the vehicle are modest, but it upgrades within the cabin to a proximity key with a push button start and, on the Elite, a reversing camera.
The Santa Fe is one of the safest cars in its class, setting the benchmark for vehicle safety in the SUV segment. Australasian ANCAP tests awarded the Santa Fe an overall five star rating demonstrating the extreme safety and solidarity of the model.
Rain sensing wipers, electric seats, and full i-pod connectivity are also great features for the family.
Hyundai New Zealand continues its stance on uncompromised safety standards across range; the Santa Fe has an advanced Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) as well as Electronic Brake-Force Distribution (EBD), which applies the optimum pressure to individual brakes in all braking situations.
The vehicle also features a new rollover sensor, which triggers the side airbags, and seatbelt pretensioners for front seat passengers in the event the vehicle is overturned. This allows the kind of timely response that is important, especially in SUV vehicles, Hyundai asserts.
The Santa Fe also features the BAS (Brake Assist system), which applies maximum force to the brakes during emergency stopping situations.
What this means to you: Hyundai is a brand on the move - and it's moving fast.
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