Hyundai Motor will increase production of the popular new Palisade SUV after management and union agreed a deal after a month of negotiations.
Hyundai's new large SUV was a hit even before its release in December last year, receiving over 20,000 pre-orders in two weeks. It sold 55,000 units until the end of last month, but only 20,000 have been delivered, the Chosun Ilbo reported.
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"We've been producing 6,240 Palisade vehicles a month but agreed to a 40% increase to make 8,640," a Hyundai spokesman told the South Korean daily.
The Ulsan plant has produced equal number of Palisades and the Starex light commercial van but now three of four vehicles will be Palisades.
The paper said Hyundai wanted to produce more units but the union protested that this would increase the workload so a compromise was based on reducing Starex production.
Hyundai Motor's domestic sales in March continued to be lifted by strong demand for new SUVs such as the Palisade, and Santa Fe, plus the new Sonata passenger car, with overall deliveries to dealers rising by 3.7% to 70,111 units from 67,577 a year earlier.
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By GlobalDataSales in the first three months of 2019 were 8.7% higher at 183,957 units from 169,203 units in the same period of last year.
