Hyundai Motor America Inc. may consider establishing a luxury brand, a top executive tells Ward’s.
“We’d probably be silly not to look at it,” Wayne Killen, director-product planning, says here during a test drive of the all-new Hyundai Veracruz cross/utility vehicle. “The case could be made that it makes sense for us.”
Hyundai already has “cut its teeth” in the fierce U.S. market by competing head-to-head with U.S., Japanese and European brands – and succeeding, Killen claims.
Hyundai’s share of the U.S. market grew last year by 0.1 percentage points to 2.8%, compared with 2005. However, sales this year were down 3.1% through February, tracking below the industry’s 2.5% decline.
Additionally, the U.S. market is expected to begin seeing Chinese-built small cars, which are bound to be inexpensive and potentially could cut into Hyundai’s value-oriented market segment, Killen says.
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