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Hyundai Sante Fe reveals its refreshed face in South Korea

The Hyundai Santa Fe is getting a refreshed face just three years after the debut of the current generation, but for now the revision is exclusive to the South Korean market. The crossover is definitely getting a dash more style with this upgrade. The grille retains a three-bar design, but each crosspiece now sports cuts at each edge for a more visually interesting look. Lower down, the air intake grows larger for a little more aggression, and LED running lights are now mounted above the fog lights. The headlights are also re-sculpted for a sharper shape. According to a rough translation of Hyundai's press release, the rear bumper and taillights also see revisions, but the company has no photos of them. Similarly, the interior apparently receives a redesigned gauge cluster with new fonts and icons. For the South Korea at least, the updated Santa Fe is also getting an expanded list of tech options. Buyers can now opt for adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, and a 360-degree camera system with parking assist. The release specifically mentions that Hyundai is aiming for the Santa Fe to score Good in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's small overlap crash test in the United States, versus the current version's Marginal rating. When the refreshed Santa Fe was previously spotted testing, the North American debut was predicted for sometime this year. Given the reveal of the crossover in South Korea, that estimated date would seem even more likely now. Autoblog reached out to a Hyundai Motor North America spokesperson for a more exact date, but all we heard back was that the automaker wouldn't comment on future product plans.

Hyundai Mingtu revealed on billboard ahead of Shanghai

The so-called Hyundai Mini-Sonata now has a proper name. Called the Mingtu in China, this new sedan will slot in between the compact Elantra and midsize Sonata, and it sports a pretty nifty look.
We've known for a while now that Hyundai is working on a more mature version of its Fluidic styling language, the first fruits of which showed up in the latest Santa Fe, and the Mingtu seems to take that refined appearance to the next level with a refined look of creased lines, a chiseled fascia and a smooth greenhouse.
There's no indication that this car will be offered in the US market, but it's certainly possible that some of its styling elements will carry over to the next Elantra or Sonata. In any case, expect a range of 1.8- and 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines to be announced for the Chinese market when the Mingtu makes its official debut at the Shanghai Motor Show this weekend.

How Hyundai lost momentum, and will 'take a few years' to recover

SEOUL/DETROIT/CHONGQING, China — At a near-empty Hyundai Motor showroom in the Chinese mega city of Chongqing, the store manager is grumbling about his shortage of customers and a lack of bigger, cheaper SUV models popular in the world's largest auto market. Even with discounting of as much as 25 percent, his dealership was selling barely a hundred vehicles a month, said the manager surnamed Li. A nearby Nissan dealership was selling about 400 vehicles a month, a store manager there said. "The sales are simply poor," Li told Reuters. "Look at the Nissan store next door, they have tens of customers while we just have two." An hour's drive away is Hyundai's massive $1 billion manufacturing plant, which opened last year with a target to produce 300,000 vehicles per year. But with sales weak and the Chinese auto market slowing sharply, the factory is running at roughly 30 percent of capacity, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The sources asked not to be identified because the information was not public. Hyundai, the world's fifth largest automaker, declined to comment on the Chongqing plant's production or the showroom's sales but said it is "closely cooperating" with local partner BAIC to turn around the China business. BAIC did not respond to requests for comment. Hyundai's woes mark a major reversal for the automaker which was an early success story in China as it quickly and cheaply rolled out popular new models into a surging market. In 2009, Hyundai and partner Kia's combined sales ranked third in China after General Motors and Volkswagen. The South Korean duo now ranks ninth, and its market share in China was 4 percent last year, from more than10 percent at the beginning of this decade. Executives and industry experts say Hyundai conceded its once stronghold in the low-end segment to fast-growing Chinese rivals such as Geely and BYD. Foreign rivals not only defended their turf in premium segments but also kept pricing competitive for mass-market models, squeezing Hyundai's positioning as an affordable foreign brand, they said. In the United States, the world's second-biggest auto market, Hyundai's market share fell to 4 percent last year, near a decade low. Hyundai ran into problems in China and the United States for similar reasons: It missed shifts in consumer tastes, especially the surge in demand for SUVs, and it sought higher prices than its brand image could command, four Chinese dealers and half a dozen former and current U.S.