Seoul Korea - "Eight million units of sales performance is just a beginning. We should believe in ourselves and work harder to attain bigger goals." Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo said this on December 15 at its head office in Seoul's Gangnam in a meeting of the world's local sales heads for Hyundai and Kia. He thanked for the effort to the sales unit presidents to have reached the 8 million sales record exceeding the target of 7.86 million units despite the difficult situation.
"Next year, we will be faced with many challenges including the low growth of the world economy, continuing weak yen, low oil prices, weakening purchasing power of oil-producing emerging markets, and the like. In a difficult situation like this, we can trust no one but ourselves. Let's not rest on your laurels or not shrink from the unfavorable market conditions. Let's just soldier on to achieve bigger goals," he added.
Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have sold 7.25 million cars for the 11-month period until the end of November, up 4.8 percent from the same period last year. In the domestic market, the two car makers sold 1.03 million cars, 2.5 percent higher than last year's. As for the international market, they sold 6.21 million, up 5.1 percent from a year ago.
Mr. Chung said, "2015 will be the first year for us to introduce a host of eco-friendly cars. We should make sure we could position ourselves as a major eco-friendly car maker with thorough preparation." The two companies plan to launch a plug-in hybrid Sonata in both domestic and the U.S. market by the first half of next year. On December 16, Hyundai Motor will unveil the New LF Sonata hybrid, followed by the Kia K5 hybrid by the second half of 2015.
By Shin Ji-hye
