Hyundai suspends Japanese sales

By Matt Brogan | November 30th, 2009

Hyundai Motor Co has pulled out of the Japanese passenger car market due to struggling sales.

A statement from South Korea’s largest automotive manufacturer confirmed that it would turn its attention to bus sales and after-sales service in the short term.

“Hyundai Motor has decided to suspend passenger vehicle sales in Japan and will instead allocate its resources to focus on commercial vehicle sales in the country.”

Hyundai began exporting to Japan in 2001 but since then has sold just 15,000 passenger vehicles.

Only 764 new cars have found homes in the first 10 month of this year and Hyundai blames low brand recognition as one of the key factors.

It has not ruled out a return to the market if conditions improve.

The poor results are against the global trend however, with Hyundai-Kia now the fifth-largest automotive group with a market share of 5.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2009.

Sales boomed 41 per cent to 824,181 quarter-on-quarter, and Australia’s figures have closely followed suit, with year-to-date sales up 42 per cent to 6,281 units.

Meanwhile, Toyota is continuing its push into the South Korean market and has sales targets of more than 8000 vehicles in 2010.

Next year will mark the brand’s 10th year in South Korea, and through five dealerships its sales currently account for around 10 per cent of the local industry’s total imports.

by Tim Beissmann

Simonsez

So, we’re prepared to buy Japanese cars, but the Japanese won’t buy Korean cars. Seems to me that there’s something other than mere lack of brand recognition at work here.Maybe Aussies are just more accepting people than the Japanese.
Shak

Im with you Simonsez, the Japanese are a bit badge snobby.

ohsotorque_

Japan-Korean relations have never been anything short of outright hatred, as evident here.

Koreans are angry at Japan for the occupation of Korea by the Japs, as well as the massacres. They’re also always last out of the 3 Asian giants, always underneath Japan/China in every aspect.

Japs just cant bear the shame of having anything Korean after having to give up Korea as part of Japan.

http://www.katiekayholmes.com Katie Kay Holmes

Hello Tim, while “low brand recognition” is cited, I wonder how accurate that really is. I’m inclined to think that there is an ongoing reluctance by Japanese vehicle distributors to promote cars from overseas manufacturers in order to protect the intrenched social order that controls much of the Japanese business market. Yakuza influence can and does have a tangible effect on foreign manufacturers trying to bring products to the marketplace in Japan. Despite recent publicity exposing Yakuza practices, it will likely be some time before any foreign vehicle manufacturers are allowed to compete on a level playing field in Japam.
G

Looks like they are protecting their local industry, like most people say we should do here and get upset when we buy imports.
Funny how everything changes when people talk about others…
Sammy

Buying foreign is frowned upon in Japan, which is smart as they want to look after their jobs and economy.

Callous Aussie

That shows they are about 30 years behind our thinking . When I was a lot younger there was never a japanese car in an RSL car park They were all Holden and Ford. Now most of them are Japanese.

ohsotorque_

No, that just shows they have greater cohesiveness in terms of national interests.

These were the people who would rather die than be captured during WW2. That’s the extent of Japanese patriotism.

Aussies wouldn’t understand this.

H

Import Car market share In Japan = 3%

Why you buy Japanese car?? Did you know How Japanese cars have grown up until these days?
Japanese is a best “Selfish protective trade” country in the world. Japan export their goods to foreign. but Japan never want import anythings.
Yes, some people will say, i think the reason is these days foreign cars are not better than Jap car..But the fact is Japan had the selfish trade for the past 50years,and keep continuing,

Such as, GM, Ford, Hyundai ,we can see the in all of the world.
But in Japan there is no Hyundai, GM, Ford and foreign car company,
Even though other foreign car companies branched out in Japan, Japanese government and Japan car companies made unfair situation to foreign cars.

These days Japanese cars’development is because of their Selfish protective trade and fascist and racism mentality. and the money from world who bought Japanese cars.
I Hate Japanese cars, because i have Right reasons. Now it’s time to study about Japanese’ Selfish and fascist mind and their trade and
plz think about this problem before you sucking up the Toyota and Honda.

ohsotorque_

You sound either Korean or Chinese.

Please, learn some English before you embarrass those you represent.

gary

a lot of japanese families can only afford to have a parking space in their properties not much larger than a normal size bathroom in syd or mel, public parking and the roads are not doing much better either. many families just buy tiny vans driven by engine less then 1,000cc. So it is quite hard to see usual american/aussie cars fit into local market.

Plus, with Chinese marketing growing so rapidly, why would any internal brands put more resources into japanese market?
Robin Graves

It’s pretty apparent that Japanese and South Korean people have a fierce rivalry as well. I remember seeing a documentary on TV about the Petronas towers in Malaysia, one tower was built by a Japanese construction team, the second was built by a South Korean construction team. This was a clever move by the owners as the two teams raced each other the whole way and they finished way ahead of schedule. There is no reason for a Japanese person to buy a Korean car, with so many local choices, and probably lots of ridicule from friends and family if they were to purchase a Korean car.

okies

I have found this from youtube.
Interesting…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcLgKFlrTl0

MJ

I wonder how well Samsung and LG sell in Japan…

Devil’s Advocate

Samsung sell quite well when you talk about LCD TVs, because there is a Samsung Panel in just about every Sony LCD TV…

Captain Mainwaring

Basically the Japanese hate the Koreans and consider them inferior. That’s why nobody in Japan wants a Korean car.

Peter

That’s right, on my understanding, although there are a lot of Koreans living in Japan. It goes beyond rivalry. Essentially, they are allegedly discriminated against by the Japanese. I have never seen a Korean car in Japan. The Japanese are quite fond of Korean food, though. The Japanese have truckloads of small cars that you dont see here, the Cube and cars that look pretty much the same as it. They have a fair few medium size cars as well that we dont see – there is a nissan something or other that looks pretty cool, about the size of a camry but you’d actually want to drive it rather than run away from it. I doubt there would be any need for Korean cars anyway.

G6ETURBO

While Hyundai suspends sales in Japan,Toyota just released the Camry, fully loaded with leather, Navigation, sunroof etc for US $23000.That’s the same price of an entry level Sonata..
Myke

Japan have such a strong car industry its hard trying to import cars there, I remember reading GM pulled Opel out of Japan for the same reason in 2006.
Its interesting though, considering how well Hyundai is doing at the moment globally, it’s kinda weird to here that they’d be struggling in such a car-cultured country like Japan.
Chucky

When I was in Seoul 6 months ago, I didn’t see a single Toyota in the 3 weeks that I was staying there. Frankly Japanese cars in general do not seem to be that popular in Korea, they much prefer European brands; Although you do see the odd Lexus, Honda, or Infiniti driving around. If I had to take a guess, I would say about 5% of the cars on the road in Seoul were Japanese and about 15% were European.
Andrew M

Not really surprised,
Japanese, and infact asian cultures in general revolve around a strong sense of loyalty. They are also very tight and controlling business people
okies

Remember?

http://www.caradvice.com.au/42516/hyundai-drops-out-of-tokyo-motor-show/
Carl

Again the hypocritical criteria of the moderator censored my comment but i can freely read much worse since then!!!!!
Carl

What i said was true and here I’ll try again……..in Japan it is almost impossible to take out citizenship even for 5TH generation decendants of Koreans and we still trade with them yet our governments try to tell us we have to accept dumping from slave labour countries or the world will not trade with us……what was so wrong with that???????????

Andrew M

Ill second that,
My thoughts exactlly, and its true when you look at the reality/mentality of it.

I just said my piece in a more polite manner, but im all for your “call a spade a spade” approach