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The performance of Korean cars in the Chinese auto market is obvious to all. They have fallen from their peak to the edge of the market. However, Korean cars, which are not popular in China, continue to sell well in overseas markets. Recently, Hyundai Motor announced that its global sales in the first half of the year were 3.6159 million vehicles, ranking third. So far, Hyundai Motor has maintained its position as the top three in global sales for two and a half years, which shows that Hyundai Motor's strength cannot be underestimated.

Hyundai Motor has made a lot of money in overseas markets, so it has more confidence to be "willful" in the Chinese market. Although performance cars are not popular in the Chinese auto market, Hyundai Motor still brings the N brand. Not long ago, Yin Yongyi, general manager of Hyundai Motor China's N brand business unit, said that not all electric car consumers like refrigerators/color TVs/large sofas, so Hyundai Motor brought the N brand to the Chinese market to focus on differentiation advantages.

As a senior executive of Hyundai Motor, it is reasonable for Yin Yongyi to stand up for his own company. However, being out of touch with the market and blindly speaking for the company is not only difficult for consumers to accept, but also affects the brand's reputation, and further reflects Hyundai's lack of insight into the Chinese auto market.

Of the 4 million to 5 million electric car consumers, not all of them like refrigerators/color TVs/large sofas, but most consumers are willing to pay for these three configurations, which have now become a gimmick for many car companies to promote. In contrast, Hyundai Motor not only failed to keep up with the development of my country's new energy vehicle market, but also insisted on bringing in niche brand N. Yin Yongyi's so-called performance electric vehicles bring differentiated choices, which may only be a fig leaf for the sluggish market performance in China!

Modern helplessness

In terms of strength, and even the ability to manufacture performance cars, Hyundai Motor does have a good performance. As mentioned above, Hyundai Motor ranks among the top three in terms of sales volume in the global market, second only toToyotaHyundai Motor and Volkswagen even have considerable profits. The profit margin in the first quarter of this year ranked first in the world, and the operating profit margin in the second quarter of this year also hit a quarterly record high. These achievements can reflect to a certain extent that Hyundai Motor is a large company with a large business.

Hyundai Motor also has profound capabilities in the research and development and manufacturing of performance vehicles. The fuel vehicles and pure electric vehicles under the N brand have won awards in many overseas competitions. It can be said that it is in the first-line performance car camp, and has even been recognized by many consumers in overseas markets.

However, the N brand, which is popular overseas, may not necessarily be recognized by consumers in China. The main reason why Yin Yongyi said that the N brand models can provide differentiated choices in the Chinese market is that performance cars are niche cars in China and few car companies have entered the market. On the contrary, models equipped with refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas are deeply recognized by consumers, among which Ideal Auto is a typical example.

The entry of Hyundai N brand, andElantra NIt is hard to say whether Hyundai Motor is desperate to introduce the IONIQ 5N and IONIQ 5N into the domestic market. However, in the eyes of industry insiders, Hyundai Motor's decision to put domestic resources into the performance car sector can be regarded as a strategic mistake.

You know, Korean cars have always been high cost-effective in China, and the impression in the minds of Chinese people is mainly a transition between domestic brands and mainstream joint venture brands, with a very obvious cost-effective label. Performance cars are different. Consumers buy such models not only for driving pleasure, but also for another factor - brand halo. This is exactly the shortcoming of Hyundai Motor. After all, in the inherent impression of consumers, Hyundai Motor focuses on the mid-to-low-end.

However, from Hyundai's perspective, bringing the N brand to the Chinese market may be a helpless move. Because Hyundai has no brand to play in China, the sales of its products are quite sluggish. Taking the sales performance in 2023 as an example,Beijing HyundaiWith about 10 models, the total sales volume is only 257,000, which is not as good as the sales volume of a single model of a brand. Faced with the sluggish market performance, Hyundai Motor brought the N brand to the Chinese market and claimed that it was to promote the development of Chinese automotive culture. It is estimated that this is just a fig leaf left by Hyundai Motor for itself.

It is an indisputable fact that Hyundai Motor has not sold well in the Chinese market, whether it is fuel products or pure electric vehicles. For Hyundai Motor, instead of placing its hopes on the N brand, it is better to adapt to the development of the Chinese market, do a good job in electrification business, and use its own system strength to empower its electric products, thereby improving its market competitiveness.

Neglectful attitude

Hyundai Motor has long been involved in electrified products, having introduced models such as IONIQ 5 and IONQ 6 to overseas markets. Its electric products are also equipped with 800V architecture and have even won honors such as European Car of the Year. So from a strength perspective, Hyundai Motor's performance in the field of new energy vehicles is not weak, and its electric vehicle products are also deeply loved by overseas consumers, with annual sales once reaching 100,000 vehicles.

Hyundai Motor has the strength to create pure electric products with strong product power, but it has not made much waves in my country's new energy vehicle market. This has a lot to do with its negligent attitude in the Chinese market. Beijing Hyundai's pace of electrification transformation is quite slow. Although Beijing Hyundai has launched the "2025 New Plan" in 2022, it also plans to build a hybrid product matrix of an MPV model, 2 sedans, and 3 SUV models in the next 3-5 years from 2022, and achieve an annual sales volume of 300,000 hybrid products, as well as 4-5 pure electric models in the next 3-5 years, and achieve an annual sales target of more than 500,000 vehicles in 2025.

However, in terms of implementation, Beijing Hyundai has not brought many hybrid and pure electric products in recent years. Among them, IONIQ 5 has not been launched after its debut at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show. Until now, Hyundai Motor has said that it will bring IONIQ 5 N. In the past, Beijing Hyundai also broughtFestaHowever, these pure electric models are all oil-to-electric products that cannot adapt to the rapid development of China's new energy vehicle market and eventually stopped production. At present, Beijing Hyundai has only one new energy vehicle officially launched in the Chinese market, which is the Hyundai NEXO, which is priced at 800,000 yuan and is a hydrogen-powered vehicle.

In terms of electrification transformation, Beijing Hyundai is seriously lagging behind the pace of the Chinese automobile market. The reason for this is clearly stated by Wu Zhoutao, Executive Vice President of Beijing Hyundai. He once said: "In the past, Beijing Hyundai has been excessively pursuing sales and has not improved the competitiveness of its products. As the trend of electrification and intelligence in the automobile industry has intensified, Beijing Hyundai's products have not changed much, whether in technology or appearance design, they are getting further and further away from Chinese consumers." To put it simply, Beijing Hyundai lacks market insight, leading to strategic decision-making errors.

Beijing Hyundai has already tasted the bitter fruit of strategic mistakes. In the past, Beijing Hyundai not only adopted the strategy of selling multiple generations of models in the same family, but also used low prices to gain market share. Although these methods can help Beijing Hyundai's market performance increase in the short term, and even achieved an annual sales volume of 1.14 million vehicles in 2016, they are not conducive to the long-term healthy development of the brand, not only leading to brand overdraft, but also damaging the brand's reputation. As mentioned above, Beijing Hyundai is now just a low-end brand in the minds of many consumers.

Beijing Hyundai's "recklessness" in its development plan is also reflected in the changes in senior management. From 2018 to 2023, Beijing Hyundai has frequently changed its leaders.Beijing AutomotiveVice President Liu Yu replaced Chen Guixiang as Beijing Hyundai's executive vice president. But in 2020, Liu Yu was transferred to BAIC New Energy. Then in 2021, Beijing Hyundai's two deputy general managers Xiang Dongping and Fan Jingtao also left one after another. As for Gong Yueqiong, who took over as chairman of Beijing Hyundai in 2022, she had already left in 2023.

Behind the frequent changes in management is the fact that Beijing Hyundai's market performance has been declining. In 2023, Beijing Hyundai's annual sales volume was only 257,000 vehicles, falling from its peak of one million vehicles to just over 250,000 vehicles. It is normal for Beijing Hyundai to be eager to increase sales.

However, Beijing Hyundai's frequent changes of corporate leaders not only make it difficult to boost sales, but also make the company sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire. Because the company does not have a stable talent system, relevant policy planning cannot be continuously implemented, and internal and external communication efficiency is also low, so Beijing Hyundai's strategic transformation and product layout are always wavering. In the long run, the company will not be able to obtain effective development momentum, and its market competitiveness will continue to weaken.

Selling property

On the one hand, the performance of the Chinese market is sluggish, while on the other hand, the sales in overseas markets are constantly rising. Whether Hyundai still cares about the Chinese market has become a question in many people's minds. Judging from Hyundai's actions in China, it seems that the Chinese market has become an insignificant link.

Hyundai Motor seems to be unimpressed by the electrification trend in the Chinese auto market. Although Beijing Hyundai has no competitive products in the field of electric vehicles, Hyundai Motor has not brought cost-effective new energy vehicles to the Chinese market, but has introduced niche performance cars with high prices that are difficult to sell in large quantities.

Not only that, Hyundai Motor has also been selling off its assets in the Chinese market. Not long ago, Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd. Beijing Branch listed 5,075 assets of Beijing Hyundai Renhe Engine Plant 1 for transfer. Earlier, Beijing Hyundai also sold its Beijing Shunyi plant toIdeal Auto, and Beijing Hyundai is located in Yuzui Town, Jiangbei District, ChongqingAvenueThe Chongqing factory of Hyundai Motor Group has finally completed the transaction. While selling the factory, Hyundai Motor Group CEO Chang Jae-hoon also said that he plans to reduce the number of models sold in China. Such actions inevitably make people wonder how determined Hyundai Motor is to develop in China? Is it ready to withdraw from the Chinese market?

There is no clear answer to what Hyundai Motor is planning. But what is certain is that the Chinese auto market is no longer the era of product scarcity. There are a wide variety of family cars, performance cars, and new energy vehicles. The auto market has entered the era of stock from the era of incremental growth. Hyundai Motor's strategic layout in China urgently needs to change.

China is now the world's largest country in terms of new energy. If Hyundai Motor wants to maintain its brand position in the Chinese auto market and revive its brand sales, it needs to increase the introduction of new energy products and innovate and upgrade new energy technologies in order to maintain its competitiveness in the involutionary new energy vehicle market.

If Hyundai Motor does not listen to the needs of Chinese car consumers, it is only a matter of time before it is abandoned by the market. At least, dealers are no longer willing to cooperate with Beijing Hyundai. Recently, a letter from Hunan dealers to Beijing Hyundai circulated on the Internet. The letter stated that due to heavy inventory pressure and operational difficulties, all Hunan dealers stopped delivering cars to Beijing Hyundai and were unwilling to accept vehicles delivered automatically. In the future, will dealers in other provinces and cities also refuse to deliver cars? Will Hyundai Motor's fate in China be the same as that of Fiat Chrysler, Mitsubishi, Acura and other brands? Time will give a clear answer!