Hyundai
and Toyota are battling to increase sales in each other’s home market,
the Korea Times reported.
The two are the top-sellers in their home markets and each last year moved
into the other’s home territory with Hyundai setting up a Japanese dealer
network while
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Toyota launched both its own and the luxury Lexus brands in South Korea.
So far this year, according to the Korea Times, Toyota is doing better, selling
265 cars up to the end of April.
Hyundai, on the other hand, fell short of its target and sold less than 100
cars in Japan.
Toyota has now boosted this year’s South Korean sales target to 900 cars
and thinks it could hit 1,000 if the import market recovers.
Rather than solely targeting South-Korean made rivals for its mainstream Toyota-brand
models, the Japanese company has also gone after the growing market for large-size
luxury sedans with engines larger than 4,000 cc, the Korea Times said.
That
slot is tailor-made for the V8-powered Lexus LS430, 116 of which were sold by
the end of April.
Citing a Toyota official, the newspaper said that Toyota’s success is
due to focusing on one-stop service, covering sales and after-sales, as well
as various incentives.
Toyota has also been offering low prices compared with rival importers Mercedes
Benz, and BMW.
The Korea Times said that poor sales in Japan have forced Hyundai to revise
its sales strategy.
The Korean car maker originally planned to sell 5,000 cars this year and 30,000
units within five years, with the aim of selling 100,000 cars within 10 years.
Unlike
Toyota, which sells cars in Korea that have no direct local competitors, the
Hyundai cars offered in Japan are little diffferent from locally-produced competition.
Hyundai models such as the Elantra mid-size sedan, Santa Fe SUV and Trajet
minivan are very similar to competing models made in Japan which may explain
why only 12 Hyundais were sold there in January.
A Hyundai official told the Korea Times that the Japanese car market has remained
very difficult to access, ascribing the sluggish sales to low [brand] recognition
among Japanese consumers.
The newspaper said that, much like Korea, Japan has remained a relatively closed
territory for foreign car makers, who sold only 270,000 units there last year
for a five percent market share.
However, Hyundai is confident it will increase its Japanese market share, citing
the improved image of Hyundai cars among Japanese drivers, the Korea Times said.
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