On April 15th, Hyundai Kia held a “Leap More China” strategy press conference. It seems that in the face of the current downturn in business in China, South Koreans can’t wait to fight back.
Starting next year, Hyundai Motor and Kia will launch pure electric vehicles in China every year.
Hyundai and Kia fell out of TOP15 sales in the first quarter
As we all know, China, as the world’s fastest-growing economy, has become the world’s largest auto market. Here, there are the world’s largest and youngest consumer groups and the most complex and diverse car-using scenes. The so-called Chinese market wins the world, but in the past few years, due to political factors, superimposed product strength, quality reputation and other multiple reasons, Korean brands have been difficult to improve in recent years. According to the March sales statistics of the National Travel Association, no matter whether it is at the level of car companies or the models of various market segments, the sales TOP15 list can not find the names of two Korean companies and related products. In the 2020 annual report released by BAIC Group, although it did not disclose the specific revenue and gross profit of its joint venture Beijing Hyundai, the announcement revealed that Beijing Hyundai’s terminal sales volume was 502,000, which has been declining for 4 years. In contrast, Dongfeng Yueda Kia’s situation is slightly better. The brand officially announced that the sales volume in 2020 will be 249,300 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%.
It can be said that if Hyundai and Kia do not make changes, their prospects will be even more bleak under the trend that their own brands continue to rise.
Therefore, Hyundai Kia has proposed four core strategies, which can be simplified into four aspects. First, further strengthen localized R&D and launch exclusive high-quality products and services for Chinese consumers; second, import exclusive electric vehicle products recognized by the global market into the Chinese market; third, make full use of them to start earlier Promoting the transformation and upgrading of joint venture brands to become a brand favored by Chinese consumers.
New energy products in China will increase to 21
According to Hyundai Kia’s strategic announcement this time, they will further strengthen China’s localized R&D and marketing efforts, and launch products and services that are more valuable to Chinese users. According to reports, Hyundai Kia plans to establish its first overseas advanced digital R&D center in Shanghai in the second half of this year. The R&D center will focus on the current four disruptive technology development directions-autonomous driving, interconnection technology, electrification and shared travel, and accelerate the digital transformation of Hyundai and Kia in China. At the same time, Beijing Hyundai and Dongfeng Yueda Kia will also carry out business innovation in all links including production, sales and marketing, focusing on the needs of local users.
In response to the major changes in the electrification of the global automotive industry, Hyundai and Kia will simultaneously develop all new energy models including hybrid, plug-in hybrid, pure electric and hydrogen fuel cells. In 2020, sales of Hyundai and Kia plug-in hybrid models and pure electric vehicles ranked fourth in the world. In December 2020, Hyundai·Kia created E-GMP, a global modular platform for electrification. The strategic products IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6 respectively launched by Hyundai and Kia are based on this E-GMP platform. Hyundai Motor’s IONIQ 5 received 18,000 orders in just one hour in Korea’s pre-sale, breaking the local pre-sale record of the Korean car brand. Kia’s EV6 orders reached 21,016 on the day the pre-sales officially opened in South Korea, reaching 162% of the 2021 sales target. As for the Chinese market, Hyundai Kia has made it clear that it will accelerate the pace of new electric vehicle launches.
Starting next year, Hyundai Motor and Kia will launch pure electric vehicles in China every year. IONIQ (艾尼氪) 5. EV6 will be introduced one after another, and a dedicated pure electric model for the Chinese market will be launched. By 2030, Hyundai Motor and Kia plan to increase the number of new energy products in China to 21 models, covering hybrid vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
E-GMP, an electrified global modular platform built by Hyundai and Kia
In particular, Hyundai and Kia have made great efforts in the R&D and application of hydrogen fuel cell technology in recent years. As the first company to mass-produce hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell dedicated model NEXO was launched in 2018. In the field of commercial vehicles, the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell heavy truck XCIENT Fuel Cell has also achieved commercial operation in Switzerland. At the end of last year, Hyundai Motor also released the exclusive brand HTWO for hydrogen fuel cell systems. At the same time, they also introduced their hydrogen fuel cell technology to China. The group’s first overseas hydrogen fuel cell system production and sales base “HTWO Guangzhou” is expected to be officially completed in the second half of 2022, and the total investment is expected to reach 8.5 billion yuan by 2030. RMB (including factory operating expenses). This will be the first plant named after Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell exclusive brand “HTWO”, and it will also be China’s first large-scale hydrogen fuel cell system production dedicated plant.
At the brand level, Beijing Hyundai will continue to implement the “HSMART+” technology brand strategy and develop into an innovative brand focusing on smart experience. Through innovative technologies in the three areas of environmentally friendly travel, connected travel and free travel, it will provide consumers with a new travel experience . As for Dongfeng Yueda Kia, it will simultaneously become a fashionable and young mobile travel brand. During the Shanghai Auto Show a few days later, in addition to all Kia models equipped with new logos, Dongfeng Yueda Kia will also fully upgrade its dealer network based on new standards, and deploy high-end direct experience centers and specialty city experience stores in major cities across the country. Wait.
Southern Reporter Liang Luozhe
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