2015 Hyundai Sonata Se on 2040-cars

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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.

Average new-car fuel economy figures continue record pace

Manufacturers are making more efficient cars and trucks; we've known that to be true for some time. Nearly every new car has some sort of trick to eke a few extra miles out of every gallon of fuel. Whether that be turbocharging, active aerodynamics or hybrid technology/electrified powertrains, the fact is that our vehicles are more efficient than ever before.
Thanks to a recent study by TrueCar, we've got fresh quantitative data to support the above statements. For the fourth month in a row, we've seen an improvement in national fleet fuel economy. We Americans are 0.7 miles per gallon more efficient than we were last month, and our cars are 1.6-mpg better than at this time last year. That said, we're still down on 2013's high, which was set back in January at 24.5 mpg.
Not only does this reflect the improved technologies in our vehicles, but it demonstrates a changing mindset among consumers, who are purchasing more efficient vehicles despite the relative stabilization of fuel prices. Every fuel-efficient model sold drives its manufacturers fleet average up.

2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo: April 2013

Learning To Love Understand You
I will admit, I haven't had the nicest things to say about our long-term 2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo since its arrival in our fleet earlier this year. I can't exactly say that I've bonded with our turbocharged Hyundai, despite the fact that I've driven it quite a bit since its arrival in the Autoblog Garage. Several of my friends will no doubt recall me saying things like, "I love everything about this car - except driving it," which is a shame, since the driving aspect is what's supposed to make this car so special. I'm a big fan of the base Veloster, and this one has the extra power bump that the naturally aspirated could really benefit from. So what gives?
Recently, I took a trip to the south of France, where I drove the brand-new Ford Fiesta ST along the lovely roads of the Alps. I adored that car - it's everything a hot hatch should be, and it's priced right, too. But when I came home and picked up the Veloster Turbo at the airport, I found myself disappointed. The Ford I drove in Europe was similar to the Hyundai in terms of size, function, equipment and price, but it was far better to drive. To be fair, that car wasn't even out to benchmark when the Veloster Turbo debuted, but my already sour feelings only got worse at that moment.