Hyundai is becoming more sophisticated, but it will not give up its ‘value’ position according to the company’s European chief, Briton Allan Ruthforth.
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He said the differentiation between Hyundai and affiliate brand Kia is emerging and will accelerate over the next few years.
“Kia will be more sporty and Hyundai more sophisticated,” he said on Wednesday.
“Both brands now have their own European factories and the cars we build, the Hyundai i30 and the Kia cee’d, are in healthy competition.
“They are both designed and developed for European tastes and roads but you will see the two companies developing their own definite identities and this process is accelerating – we don’t want to spend 20 or 30 years establishing brands.
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By GlobalData“Hyundai will be perceived as more sophisticated but we will still offer value in terms of pricing, particularly at a time when customers are looking for value.”
Ruthforth said the new i30 factory in the Czech Republic (Kia’s is in neighbouring Slovakia) improved availability across Europe and also means customers can get their new cars more quickly than if they had to wait for shipments from Korea or, increasingly, India, where models like the Getz and i10 are made.
He added that fleet penetration would be key to the i30’s success in Europe.
“Traditionally Hyundai has been seen as an SUV manufacturer and our Sante Fe and Tucson models have been very successful – but SUVs don’t penetrate the fleet markets that deeply.
“With our new range of ‘i’ models we are re-engineering the business to balance our product offering to be able to offer more mainstream models to compete with the likes of Opel, Ford and Volkswagen.”
Rushforth said Hyundai – which offers a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty here in the UK – has no plans to copy Kia which offers seven-year cover with the Slovakian-built cee’d.
“Kia has used the warranty to raise awareness and has been very successful. It may not necessarily help sell cars but it does boost customer loyalty.
“Hyundai already had a significantly higher level of awareness and rather than put money into the warranty we are spending it on improving the customer experience, rolling out a new corporate identity across Europe, improving our recruitment and training and seeing how we can simplify key processes to the benefit of the customer.”
