Get Ready For The New Hyundai Model Blitz In 2nd Half Of 2015
It is going to be a busy second half of the year for Hyundai and Kia, as the automakers plan on rolling out 11 new models in hopes of improving upon a sluggish sales growth rate in the first half of 2015.
A big part of the problem for the Koreans has been increased competition from Japanese automakers who have taken advantage of the weak yen.
There are also growth issues in China and other emerging markets playing a role in the slowing down of sales growth.
Hyundai and Kia believe that they can overcome these issues by releasing a string of new vehicles over the coming months.
Industry sources believe that 11 new vehicles will be unveiled before the end of the year, which would be the largest release of new models in the history of the company.
There will also be a number of vehicles that will represent the Korean’s first foray into certain segments.
Let’s take a quick look at what we can expect:
New Hyundais
Hyundai will have a number of global releases, including the new generations of the Equus, Elantra, Accent, and a new AE hybrid.
They will add a Genesis Diesel to South Korea, and possibly Europe, and will also deliver a new Creta to BRIC markets.
- Equus luxury sedan
- Elantra redesign
- Accent redesign
- AE (codename) hybrid – rival to the Toyota Prius
- Genesis with diesel engine (for Europe and Korea only)
- Creta sub-compact SUV (Asia only)
- Sonata plug-in model
New Kia models
Kia will go global with the next generation Sportage and a new hybrid crossover, whilst adding a next generation K5 to the domestic market.
The K5 will also come in a hybrid and plug-in hybrid variant. In US and Europe, they will release the next generation Optima.
- Sportage redesign
- New Optima
- Optima Hybrid (+ Optima plug-in hybrid coming in 2016)
- Kia DE hybrid car (Toyota Prius rival)
The next few months look as though they are going to be very busy for both automakers, and it will certainly make up for the lack of activity in the first half of the year, where the only new model introduced was the new Hyundai Tucson! (photo: kia-world.net)
