Hyundai plans to keep its position as the best-selling foreign brand in Russia, although it faces challenges, reported Automotive News Europe.
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Dealers in Russia have had difficulty getting enough cars this year, partly due to global demand. In addition, a strike at the company’s assembly plants in Korea slowed production in late summer. Hyundai repeatedly faces strikes because of conflicts with its workers’ union.
Russia is also a vast market to tackle, stretching across 11 time zones, and has many areas with poor roads. And Hyundai’s biggest competitor in Russia is Toyota, which won’t yield market share easily.
Despite these difficulties, Hyundai more than doubled sales in Russia to 68,745 units during the first nine months of 2005. That makes Hyundai Russia’s largest selling foreign brand, said Sohn Jang-Won, head of Hyundai’s CIS and Central Europe regional headquarters in Moscow.
This compares with Toyota/Lexus, which sold 49,117 units to the end of September this year, Sohn said.
Four years ago most buyers in Russia bought Russian-made cars, but now, “with the growth of their income, Russian customers are looking for some alternative for their vehicle,” Sohn said.
In 2001 Hyundai sold only 1,513 cars in Russia. This year the carmaker aims to sell 85,000 to 90,000 units.
Lada, the top selling domestic car brand in Russia, still outsells Hyundai by large numbers. In the first eight months 270,562 of the 834,478 cars sold in Russia were Ladas.
