Hyundai Europe expects to keep market share in 2013
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HAMBURG (Reuters) -- Hyundai Europe says it expects to keep the 3.5 percent market share it enjoyed in 2012, despite the continuing slump in European car sales.
"2013 will be a year of consolidation before we aim to grow further in 2014," Allan Rushforth, chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor Europe, told Reuters.
Hyundai has increased its share of the European market steadily from just 1.8 percent five years ago, making it one of the hottest selling individual brands along with its Korean affiliate Kia. Together the two brands held a 6.2 percent market share in the region last year, outselling the Fiat brand, which had the lowest market share of Europe's mass-market carmakers at 4.6 percent.
Most of Hyundai Europe's production base is located in the low-cost centers of the Czech Republic and Turkey, rather than Korea, helping the carmaker to avoid the high labor costs faced by competitors who assemble cars in western Europe.
European sales at the automaker have been lifted by the launch of 15 new models in recent years, such as the i30 subcompact car that was designed, engineered and built in Europe for the European market.
Rushforth said this year will be a quiet one in terms of new products, with the revamped Santa Fe SUV and, towards the end of the year, a new derivative of the i10 small city car planned.
Hyundai and Kia together expect global sales to rise about 4 percent to 7.4 million vehicles this year compared with 7.1 million in 2012, which represented a growth of 8 percent over the previous year.
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