Hyundai to launch luxury brand
March 18, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
One very critical recipe for becoming a global and successful car manufacturer is expanding via additional brands. Toyota has Lexus, Nissan has Infinity, Honda has Acura and the Germans, well, they pretty much own the rest.
Korean manufacturer Hyundai has come a long way from the early 90s ‘oh not another Hyundai…‘ to a global and respected brand producing reliable and quality cars. The next logical step is to enter the luxury market.
There has been talk of this happening for some time, it seems logical now for Hyundai to follow in the footsteps of the Japanese and launch its own luxury orientated brand. Obviously it will spend the first decade suffering from the “standard car with a luxury badge” syndrome, much like Lexus did. But the sooner the better.
According to Hyundai sales exec Young-Key Koo, the Korean manufacturer will launch its own Luxury brand by 2010, with a new name and logo. Initial testing grounds will be China where Hyundai will analyse the brand’s success before coming West.
“In 2010, we will officially launch our luxury brand name and logo along the lines of Toyota’s Lexus, Nissan’s Infiniti and Honda’s Acura. All of our luxury models will have the new badge.” Young-Key Koo told China Daily.
It is unlikely to compete with Lexus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, it will more likely go against the likes of Infiniti and Acura first.
Hyundai is expected to sell its brand new 4.8-litre V8 sedan to the Chinese market later this year, followed by a crossover. Hyundai has admitted to having similar plans to its Japanese rivals, hoping to expand for a complete premium lineup.
Print it: 
they cant even compete with normal honda and nissan cars leave alone acura and infiniti…..infiniti is far better than lexus.
Need to fix the spelling of “Infiniti” in the first paragraph.
This will be interesting and I’m sure the other Japanese manufacturers would be wise to take notice. Hyundai have come a long way. It would seem though that it will still need to be positioned as a lower-cost alternative to the competition, despite being a “luxury” brand.
They’ll have to move beyond little grandeurs with spindly 15 inch wheels and awkward styling that looks the same from the front as it does from the back except for a massive plasti-chrome grille
Infinti far better then Lexus… hahahahahahahaahah.
But yes youd think they need to perfect norma hyundai, especially in terms of the cheap feel most of them have, before going into the luxury market… even if its just for image, currently people look down on them, theyd laugh at a luxury Hyundai with a luxury price tag.
When they release this luxury brand….its probably gonna be a rip off of another German car, just like how they riped off BMW 5 series for their “genesis” model.
the first and last time i was in a hyundai, it made me sea sick the ride was that soft. Hyundai with a luxury brand, thats like buying homebrand triple choc biscuits thinking there as good as tim tams! when there just crap.
The biggest hurdle the Koreans will need to tackle is
getting reknowned with luxury, prestige…
The problem is that the brands noted have built a long heritage and people have accustomed to immediately identify those brands as luxurious.
Koreans cant just chuck on a badge on a nice car and expect it to be successful they’ll have to grow the recognition. Especially the fact everybody identifies Korean cars as a cheap tin can its a tough stigma to get out off!
Infinity is hardly a luxury brand. Same with Acura. Neither of these are even remotely near the quality of lexus. Half the Honda models we see here in Australia now and in the past were merely rebadged as Acuras in the US. eg.Acura MDX, Acura RL(honda legend), Acura TSX(accord euro).
Atleast Lexus raised the bar back in 1989 with the LS400. Class leading fit & finish, NVH, and pricing that blew the germans away, even if wasn’t quite as sporting to drive as say a S class or 5/7 series.
Given what Hyundai builds today is only just getting close to japanese quality its a huge leap again if anybody is going to take them seriously as a luxury brand.
TP – “Infinti far better then Lexus…” sorry where did you get that from…unless i’m blind I couldn’t see that statement!!!
TP….first drive an the new infinitis in US and then laugh
Hyundai has improved a lot, but its far fetch at the moment to try to compete with the Germans or the higher echelon of the Japanese.
And Infiniti is as good as Lexus and vice versa. I’m in love with the G37 but still, Lexus is as good.
And I’m in the U.S, I really do wish Oz gets the Infiniti brand. You can’t just say “Infiniti is far better than Lexus” or vice versa… you just can’t, well definitely not a fact…
haha, actuallty just realize, I can’t say “just as good” either.. haha.
but again, I see Infiniti and Lexus everyday. And I put them as good as each other… well.. its not a fact… but its “fairer” than being very biased towards the other.
Is it no wonder, they can make HUGE profits in the luxo segment.
Next will be to develop the commercial side of things, ie make a pick up/ute etc
Regardless what you think, more choice is always better for the punters
Cheers
F-0
@No Name: Its the first post by Rocket_V6, better get to that optometrist buddy
they will go alright because they wont have the price tags that the germans and Lexus attach.
as a package hyundai delivers pretty good value for money and their numerous awards based around their value packaging shows that.
what we are talking here is the possibility of a luxo for 2/3 the price of its competitors. hyundai have a pretty good way of breaking into market share. dont worry all you pesimists because hyundai will sell their new brand
Lexus is way better than Infiniti!