Intro: A fast developing car manufacturer, Hyundai was in at the start of the South Korean motor industry, which, in itself, is actually a very new industry in that country. Initially, Hyundai was established on the back of a CKD (Complete Knockdown) version of the Hillman Hunter, a UK-product of the former Rootes Group. However, the company soon developed its own new model called the Pony. A hatchback and light commercial vehicle range was developed. It is now the largest of the South Korean motor manufacturers and has incorporated Kia Cars within its portfolio of brands, following the virtual demise of that company during a down-turn in the Korean economy. Having divested itself of its troubled engineering and industrial business activities, Hyundai is just a car manufacturer, in which DaimlerChrysler has taken a ten per cent shareholding and Mitsubishi has a four per cent stake, in order to gain a toehold in the South Korean market. The gradual ’westernisation’ of the company has taken place very quickly and instead of its products feeling like Japanese cars of ten years ago, they are now totally modern and capable of competing head-on with the mainstream brands in Europe.
Its Ulsan plant is claimed to be the biggest automobile factory in the world with a combined capacity of 1.5 million units.
Hyundai now has an ambitious goal to become one of the five largest automobile makers in the world by 2010. So a new plant was erected in the USA, Kia will have a new facility in Slovakia by 2006 and operations in China are expanding fast .
Frictions with DaimlerChrysler in China, led to DCX waving goodbye to Hyundai in August, 2004. |
