Hyundai History, Manufacturing Plants Locations
Hyundai Motor Company began its vehicle manufacturing business in coordination with a global automaker back in 1975.
The company was founded in 1967 by Chung Ju-yung and his brother Se-yung, who coordinated with Ford to release the Cortina compact.
Their first independent release, the 4-door Pony sedan, came in 1975 and was exported from Korea to a host of countries in South America, Europe, and Canada.
Hyundai first entered the US in 1986 with the Excel, and started making models with their own technology in 1988. The Sonata was the first car released using that technology.
Hyundai Motor was able to survive the Asian foreign exchange crisis in 1997, expanding their business one year later.
They took over Kia Motors and controlled several subsidiaries, with auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis one of the most prominent.
Since then, group chairman Chung Mong-koo and his son Eui-sun have tried to catch-up with the major global automotive players.
Hyundai manufacturing plant locations
The company now has production plants in the US, China, India, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, and the Czech Republic.
They also maintain R&D centers in Europe, Asia, North America, and the Pacific Rim. Kia has operations in the US, China, and Slovakia.
Hyundai closed its assembly plant in Canada back in 1993, but took another shot at North America by investing $1.7 billion on a plant in Montgomery, Alabama.
The global units produced annually break down like this: 1 million vehicles in China, 600,000 units in India, 300,000 units in the United States, 300,000 units in the Czech Republic, 200,000 units in Russia and 100,000 units in Turkey.
Chairman Chung Mong-koo’s plan was to move towards global management, with all of the aforementioned assembly lines opening over the span of a decade.
The result is a combines 3.69 million units for Hyundai and Kia, with an eye on 4.09 million in the next 2 years.
The Turkish plant expects to hit 100,000 annual units soon, and Kia will open a third Chinese plant by 2014.
This move has been coined “glocalization,” since local support is required in launching new plants. In return, the automotive group provides jobs and training in industry-related skills. This has helped them gain favor with many municipal governments.
Hyundai sales
2012 was the first time overseas sales topped those at home, with overall year-on-year growth hitting 8.6%.
Total sales hit 4.4 million, an all-time high, and an increase of 350,000 from 2011. The 10.9% overseas sales growth offset a small drop off on the home front.
The big winners were China and Czech Republic with sales from those plants increasing by 15% and 20%, respectively.
Kia also improved, posting a 7.1% growth, with sales jumping from 2.53 million to 2.72 million units. It was overseas growth that played a major part in Kia’s success, too.
China is the world’s largest automobile market, and Hyundai is increasing manufacturing capacity there to try and overtake GM in sales. Volkswagen is still tops in China, but the gap is very much closing.
The group is also closing the gap on Toyota in Africa, where their sales growth rate is increasing by about 50% each month. Hyundai holds 2nd spot with a 12% market share, while Toyota has 14.7%.
Marketing has helped Hyundai close that gap, with particularly strong performances in Algeria, Angola, Morocco, Egypt and the Republic of South Africa.
Sales in those 5 nations account for 80% of the African market, so it’s there where competition is most fierce.
Hyundai and Kia rank 3rd in market capitalization, with a combined market capitalization of 70 trillion won ($65 billion); Hyundai accounts for 47 trillion and Kia 23 trillion. They are also 3rd out of 12 when it comes to stock market value among the major automakers.
Toyota tops that list at 155.5 trillion won in market cap, with Volkswagen’s 95.5 trillion won good enough for second. Honda Motor, BMW, Daimler, Nissan, and Ford Motor occupy the spots after Hyundai. [Photosource: Koreaherald]
