Hyundai sheds “cheap car” brand image
In recent years Hyundai has gone a long way in improving the way consumers look at its brand, and they have now taken that a step further by trying to show off a premium brand image.
That tactic seems to be working very nicely with their luxury sedans Genesis and Equus crossing the 100,000 units sold in the overseas market this year.
Industry sources showed that the Genesis and Equus sold 88,771 and 10,508 units respectively in the period from January to June in 2012.
The biggest part of Hyundai’s success has come from being able to deliver high quality, fuel efficient vehicles at affordable prices.
Not content with just that, Hyundai then decided to launch the Genesis and Equus into the luxury market in hopes of challenging the likes of BMW and Mercedes. With the release of these overseas sales figures, it’s fair to say the challenge has been successful.
The Hyundai Genesis was released to the international market in 2008 and flew out the gate, selling 16,490 in its first year of availability. The numbers took a hit when the worldwide economy crumbled, with only 12,854 units shipped overseas in ’09.
Hyundai refused to quit and were rewarded when sales climbed to 22,222 and 23,256 in the years after the global financial crisis. This year those numbers are expected to top 30,000 for the first time ever.
The Equus was first released in 2010 after the worst of the financial crisis was over, and it has never looked back from day one. A total of 2,124 units were shipped overseas in that first year, followed by 4,662 in 2011, and a staggering 3,354 in the first half of this year alone.
The sales success of the Genesis and Equus is also starting to show in the US luxury car market, with monthly sales hitting 2,000 and 300 units, respectively. That growth led to Hyundai delivering 5,000 premium sedans in May, which is a first stateside.
May 2012 was something of a banner month for Hyundai as they delivered 67,019 vehicles in the US market alone. Of that number, 7.9% were luxury sedans, which is a more than 5% increase over the same period last year.
The Genesis and Genesis Coupe combined for over 3,800 units, with Grandeur and Equus accounting for a further 1,053 and 351 units, respectively. The large number of higher-priced vehicles equates to a much healthier bottom line for the Korean automaker.
The numbers speak for themselves with Hyundai posting over $37 billion in sales and $4.1 billion in operating profit. That translates to an operating profit to sales ratio of 11.4%, which is a record high for Hyundai.
The great performance of their luxury cars, Hyundai’s global sales also took a leap, reaching 2.18 million units, which represents an 11.5% increase over last year.
