Genesis’ Mission
Back in the 1980s, Japanese car makers like Toyota and Nissan knocked on the door of the European market with great ambition. Their compact and inexpensive cars took little time to plant themselves, but failed to win over the majority of European consumers.
Their market share in Europe is just around 4% these days, even though they have released supercars and premium brands there. This is why Hyundai Motor Company, which entered the market later than Toyota and Nissan, is feeling edgy with the 4% market share mark in sight.
“We are planning to focus on test driving and premium marketing in order to break the mark in the European market with our second-generation Genesis,” said a high-ranking official at Hyundai on December 3. The idea is to let local customers compare the new Genesis with the Mercedes Benz E300 and the BMW 5-Series like it did in Korea in the recent past, when potential customers were given a chance to compare the i30 to the Volkswagen Golf, Sonata to the Toyota Camry, and first-generation Genesis to the Mercedes Benz E300.
It is said that Hyundai already put on a couple of comparative test drive events in Korea with owners of the first-generation Genesis, Mercedes Benz E-Class, and BMW 5-Series to gain some confidence. Hyundai Motor Europe is planning to increase its regional market share to at least 5% by 2017. The percentage was 3.4% last year.