Hyundai May Add Canadian Auto Assembly
September 14, 2009

Riding high on a sales wave in North America, Hyundai could open an assembly plant in Canada in the next few years.

Steve Kelleher, president and chief executive officer of Hyundai Auto Canada, told the Toronto Star in an interview that Hyundai will need to take "a hard look" at opening an assembly plant in Canada if it continues hitting ambitious sales targets during the next few years.

 

Kelleher said Hyundai is aiming for 150,000 sales in Canada by the end of 2012, which would probably require Canadian production to achieve.

That wouldn't be much of a stretch. Hyundai is on pace to sell a record 95,000 vehicles in Canada this year.

As in the U.S., Hyundai is setting and shattering its own records every month. Consider these statistics cited by the Toronto Star:

- Hyundai sales in Canada are up 25 percent in the first eight months of 2009. Sales for major players --General Motors, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota -- are down more than 20 percent so far this year. The total market has fallen 15.5 percent for the period.

- Hyundai's market share in Canada has increased from a low of 1.4 percent in 1997 to almost 7.5 percent this year.

- Hyundai has posted record results for seven consecutive months and moved into sixth place in sales.

- Hyundai rose to fourth place, behind luxury nameplates Lexus, Porsche and Cadillac in Canadian sales.

In the U.S., Hyundai's sales totaled 310,706 through the end of August, just of last year's pace of 312,899. The Hyundai Group, which includes not only Hyundai but also affiliate Kia, saw sales skyrocket by 52 percent in August, thanks to Cash for Clunkers. That put it on track for a record year. The Hyundai Group has been swapping places throughout the year for the No. 6 spot in U.S. sales, according to Edmunds.com statistics.

An assembly plant in Canada would make Hyundai the sixth major vehicle producer along with General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda. Suzuki also has a plant, once a joint-venture with GM, in Canada. 

However, a plant in Canada would not be Hyundai's first there. Based on soaring sales, beginning with the Hyundai Pony in Canada, the automaker opened an assembly plant in Bromont, Quebec, in 1989. But it stopped production more than four years later when North American sales crashed, due to customer rejection of the brand due to poor product quality. 

With quality issues behind it, Hyundai has been rebuilding since the late 1990s in North America and stepped on the gas with its first U.S. plant in Montgomery, Ala., a broader array of products and extremely aggressive marketing, which, in the U.S., has lately included a return policy if a buyer loses income and rich incentives. -- Michelle Krebs

 

 

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:35 AM under Companies , News | Comments (3) | digg this | Seed Newsvine

Technorati Tags: hyundai, hyundaimarketshare, hyundaiofcanada, hyundaisales, hyundaisalesincanada, hyundaisalesintheus, stevekelleher, torontostar