Moving up market seems the only way to success for Korean manufacturers

With Hyundai moving up market in the States, it makes me wonder what will be their strategy in Europe. Hyundai is not planning to bring the Genesis over here and Genesis Coupe will be available in limited volumes, only 1000 of them will be brought to Europe. The new Sonata (i40 in Europe) will continue to be Hyundai’s flagship.

Genesis has been well received in U.S., but this wouldn't be possible at present in Europe. In terms of EUDM, Hyundai is focusing on small and affordable cars and this is due to the fact that Europeans are not as open minded as Americans. Potential buyers of premium cars hardly consider a Lexus, let alone an Infiniti. Hyundai has a reputation of making affordable cars and people, until recently, used to buy them because they couldn't afford a “better” new car. However, this will have to change as Chinese manufacturers will be soon entering the market with cheaper cars. They may not be good cars at the beginning, but they will improve and then Koreans will no longer have a business case.

Japanese try to keep their advantage in hybrid technology and expertise in manufacturing all the vital components, while trying to import rare-earth elements from countries other than China (earlier post from Japanese Green Cars blog). At the same time, Hyundai and Kia are moving fast in order to begin commercial production of hybrid vehicles, while moving up market in order to boost their image and convince people that Koreans can produce cars of good quality and advanced technology, which can directly compete with Japanese and European cars.

The current generation of Sonata hasn’t been successful in Europe and the same will probably apply for the new one (YF), but if Hyundai makes a really good car that stands out from the crowd (which I am certain that they will do), people can start having at the back of their minds that Hyundai is not what it used to be in the past and even consider buying one in the long term.