Hyundai Hunts Big Three in Global Sales Race
2011 marked another year of success for South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. and affiliate Kia. Having capitalized on its Japanese rivals’ year of challenges, sales for Hyundai and Kia have climbed like a rocket.
Final global sales numbers for 2011 are 4.05 million and 2.54 million for Hyundai and Kia respectively. Boasting an increase in overseas sales by 14 percent, Hyundai sold 610,000 units in India and 730,000 in China. Kia’s overseas sales increased by 24 percent.
Determined to keep the momentum going, the South Korean automakers plan to increase global sales by another 6.1 percent this year for a combined sales amount of 7 million vehicles. While it is a conservative amount compared to the growth of the last two years, Hyundai will be taking 2012 as a year to thoroughly improve the quality of its vehicles and to invest more in research and development. Clearly learning from Toyota‘s misstep, Hyundai hopes that its concentration on quality control as well as on other areas that might have been overlooked during the company’s rapid growth can help to avoid enormous recalls that would damage the company in the future.
[Source: Bloomberg]
More by Danny Choy
Comments
Join the conversation
Great styling, quality is super (built here in the USA). Has a kick when you need it and I get 37 MPG on a 300 mile trip... even better than what they advertise...