2008 Hyundai Tiburon Se Low Miles Clean! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Hyundai Motor plans 17 EVs, $16B investment by 2030

SEOUL — South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co said on Wednesday it planned to invest about 95.5 trillion won ($79.21 billion) through 2030, including about 19.4 trillion won ($16.10 billion) towards electric vehicle (EV) related businesses. It also said it plans to introduce 17 EVs in that timeframe, six from Genesis and 11 from the Hyundai brand. Hyundai announced that three of those EVs would be sedans, along with six SUVs, a light commercial vehicle and one new type of model. It will begin sales of the Ioniq 6 later this year, followed by the Ioniq 7 in 2024. Hyundai Motor, which together with affiliate Kia Corp is among the world's top 10 biggest automakers by sales, targets to achieve a 7% market share in the global EV market by 2030, with an annual sales target of 1.87 million vehicles, the automaker said during a virtual investor day. The Seoul-based automaker said it aimed to achieve an operating profit margin of 10% or higher in EV business by 2030. "Hyundai is successfully accelerating its transition to electrification and becoming a global leader in EVs despite a challenging business environment caused by the global chip shortage and ongoing pandemic," Hyundai Motor Chief Executive Officer Jaehoon Chang said. Analysts, however said Hyundai's $16 billion investment in EV business would not be considered an "aggressive" approach compared to its rivals, adding, the investment is easily dwarfed by bigger rivals including Toyota Motor Corp, which plans to invest 8 trillion yen ($69.43 billion) for electrification by 2030. "Hyundai is allocating about 20% of its 95.5 trillion won investment to EV related businesses, which includes building new plants, EV charging stations and strategic alliances with battery manufacturers and the investment amount for EV does not seem too surprising or aggressive," said Eugene Investment & Securities analyst Lee Jae-il. Chang said Hyundai was considering building new dedicated EV production plants without proving details of new factories, including locations and timeline. Analysts said Hyundai would be eying on building dedicated EV factories in the United States, as it considers that as its key EV market. Shares in Hyundai Motor closed down 2.6%, compared to the benchmark KOSPI's 0.2% gain. ($1 = 1,205.2600 won) ($1 = 115.2300 yen) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Rashmi Aich) Related video: This content is hosted by a third party.

Hyundai, Genesis, Subaru warn their dealers about markups

Six weeks ago, word got out that Ford's VP of sales for the U.S. and Canada wrote one of those "It has come to our attention..." e-mails to the automaker's dealer body. The VP's problem was dealers trying to get reservation deposits for the Ford F-150 Lightning well above the official $100 fee. The tomfoolery resulted in interactions "with customers in a manner that is negatively impacting customer satisfaction and damaging to the Ford Motor Company brand and Dealer Body reputation." Two weeks later, GM told its dealers to cut out the reservation gaming and the markups on the 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, banditry that's been going on for two years. Two weeks ago, Ford was back at it, this time about markups on the Bronco. Last week, Asian automakers swept into the melee, with Hyundai and Genesis, Subaru, and Infiniti writing letters to their dealers to deliver some variant of, "Stop pissing off the customers." Automotive News reported an SVP at Hyundai Motor America and the COO at Genesis Motor North America sent letters to their dealers expressing disappointment at "certain pricing practices which, if left unchecked, will have a negative impact on the health of our brand." One of the practices mentioned was dealer markups, another was the bait-and-switch, with dealers advertising one price then charging a higher price once the customer showed up at the lot. The letters acknowledged that dealers are separate companies to the automakers and have the right to set their own prices. The automakers cannot interfere with that; their leverage is distributing allocations and perks such as advertising support and financial incentives. So, like a movie boss letting the protagonist go on a technicality, the brands wrote, "we cannot stand idly by watching the actions of the aforementioned dealers undo all the efforts we collectively have put into making these brands what they are today." Jalopnik got tipped to a letter Subaru of America CEO Thomas Doll sent to that brand's dealers. Doll's polite yet insistent tone was the result of a letter a loyal Subaru owner sent to the automaker's VP of Customer Advocacy. In the market for a third brand-new Forester, the owner said they encountered a "tax" labeled a "Low Inventory Surcharge" of as much as $6,000, putting the Forester out of reach.

Hyundai, Kia ratchet up fleet sales as retail transactions slide

Automotive News reports both Hyundai and Kia have stepped up fleet sales in an attempt to offset disappointing first quarter results. The Korean automakers saw their sales decline by nine percent compared to last year, while all major competitors managed to increase their sales. That situation marks an inversion of two years ago, when both gained ground after Japanese rivals suffered production and inventory shortages after the country's earthquake and tsunami tragedies.
Now, Hyundai can't come up with enough volume models in popular trim configurations to satisfy buyers, and lower-volume models are also in a snag. At the moment, Hyundai can only build 20-30 percent of Veloster hatchbacks with turbocharged engines while the US market would apparently support closer to 70 percent.
In order to reverse the sales slide, Hyundai and Kia have stepped up fleet sales of the vehicles they do have by some 50 percent, ringing up a total of 42,400 units in the first quarter. By contrast, Automotive News reports the seven largest automakers increased retail volume by seven percent and fleet sales by four percent as a group.