Sales in Sharp Decline

The number of vehicles sold in China by Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Motors tumbled by half in March from a year earlier.
The number of vehicles sold in China by Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Motors tumbled by half in March from a year earlier.

 

The number of vehicles sold in China by Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Motors tumbled by half in March from a year earlier due to the intensifying anti-Korean sentiment in China over the South Korean government’s decision to deploy the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in the nation.  

The two South Korean brother automakers sold a combined 72,032 vehicles in China, their biggest overseas market, in March, down 52 percent from 150,592 a year earlier. Separately, Hyundai's sales plunged 44 percent to 56,026 units from 100,549 a year ago while Kia's suffered a bigger decline, a 68 percent drop to 16,006 units from 50,043.

In particular, the significant drop in Hyundai’s sales in China was unprecedented since its sales in China has grown generally since it began selling its cars in the country in 2002. It is also the first time that the combined monthly sales by the two companies fell below the 100,000-unit mark since February 2016, when numbers stood at 95,235 units. In 2016, Hyundai sold 1.14 million autos in China, up 7.5 percent from the previous year. Kia's sales rose 5.5 percent year-over-year to 650,005.

The carmaker has nine manufacturing facilities in China, including one factory currently under construction. When completed, Hyundai is set to secure production capability of 1.7 million units a year in China.

The sharp sales decline in the Chinese market came amid escalating conflict between the two countries over the deployment of the THAAD system on South Korea. Some Chinese consumers and companies have joined the government-led economic campaigns against Korean-made vehicles and other products. Even taking advantage of the anti-Korean sentiment in China, some Hyundai rivals have been offering more benefits to customers who turn away from Korean cars. Some of Volkswagen dealers in China provide discounts for customers who replace Korean cars with theirs, according to Yonhap News Agency.

 

 

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