Focusing on Recovering Competitiveness
Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group has set their global sales target at 7.6 million units this year, slightly higher than that of last year. As uncertainties such as global trade disputes persist, the automotive group set its sales goal as conservatively as possible, hoping for an earnings improvement compared with last year's worst performance.
The combined sales goal breaks down into 4.68 million for Hyundai Motor and 2.92 million for Kia Motors. Hyundai is planning to sell 721,000 units at home and 3,968,000 units abroad while Kia’s domestic and overseas sales targets are 530,000 and 2.39 million units, respectively. This is an increase of about 50,000 units compared with last year. The automotive group expected that their sales will rise from last year. Hyundai and Kia set their targets for 2018 below those of the previous year, a practice they have never done before.
Hyundai and Kia have decided to concentrate on recovering their competitiveness in major markets such as the United States and China.. In the U.S. market, the two carmakers plan to expand their lineups of sports utility vehicles (SUVs). They will push for a turnaround by launching specialized models for the Chinese market. They have also decided to focus on emerging markets.
Meanwhile, last year, Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 7,398,975 units, up from 2017. However, they failed to meet the target of 7.55 million units set in early last year.
Sales of all domestic car brands other than Hyundai and Kia were down from 2017. Renault Samsung sold 227,577 units (90,369 units at home and 137,208 units abroad), which were 17.8 percent down from 2017. GM Korea sold 462,871 units (93,317 units at home and 369,554 units abroad), a decrease of 11.8 percent on year. Poor domestic sales were blamed on the drops in the two automakers’ sales. SsangYong Motor sold 141,995 units, about the same level as last year. It sold 109,140 units in the Korean market and 34,169 units in overseas markets.