South Korean automaker Hyundai unveiled on December 05 the first of a series of new cars it will bring to Europe next year to reinvigorate its brand and increase sales by at least 10 percent. At the annual auto show in this northern Italian City, Hyundai showed off to reporters the i10, successor to the small Atos car.
Designed for European tastes, Hyundai is banking on the playful, round-edged i10 to eventually outsell its predecessor. "We expect clearly to grow volumes with the i10," Allan Rushforth, Hyundai's vice president for Europe, later told Reuters. "The good thing is that we've got an existing customer base so we can hit the ground running."
In terms of unit sales, he expected to sell 10-20 percent more of the i10 during the next three years than the Atos, whose sales averaged 70,000-80,000 units a year.
He said the i10 should mark the beginning of the end of Hyundai's declining sales in Europe, a highly competitive and overcrowded market. "This last year has been at the bottom of our product cycle," he said, adding that volume sales will have gone down by 7-8 percent in 2007.
Although Hyundai came out with a new hatchback called the i30 last year, its launch came too late to make much of a difference on the numbers, he said.
As for next year, Rushforth aimed to increase sales by 10-15 percent with the help of the new models. "We expect significant progress in 2008." It is importing cars until its plant in the Czech republic becomes operational next year.
Hyundai might be the world's sixth largest carmaker with its Kia affiliate, but it is a small player in the western Europe like other Asian players, with a market share of about 2 percent.
It has had more success in eastern and central Europe where price is a big deciding factor for many consumers with tight budgets. In those markets, its share is 3 to 5 percent, said Rushforth. Elsewhere in the world, Hyundai also wants to increase sales in China and the United States but its ambitious plans have been met with scepticism.
Hyundai's strategy has been to sell its cars at a list price 5 to 7 percent lower than most of its competitors, he said. The i10, however, will cost 3 to 4 percent more than the Atos, whose list price ranged from 9,000-10,000 euros depending on the country. Its main competitors include the Toyota Yaris and the Volkswagen Polo.