Gasgoo.com (Shanghai April 19th)– It’s noticed that the once relevant Korean brands have lost favor in Chinese auto market. Supporting that, Hyundai only sold 1,679,000 cars in 2015, down by 4.9% compared against 2014, while the total sales in Chinese market rose 5%.
According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Korean brands sold 152,100 cars in Chinese market this March while Chinese domestic brands sold 891,700 cars in the same period.
It’s observed that Korean brands’ main advantages including good appearance, high configuration and high cost performance are becoming less attractive to Chinese buyers now. The main reasons are: Firstly, luxury brands, including Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, all have lowered their marketing positioning, which leads to some overlap with Korean’s; secondly, the Korean brands’ counterparts in Germany, Japan and North American have also lowered their prices; Thirdly, the emerging Chinese domestic brands have imposed pressure on Korean brands; and at last, the Korean brands themselves also have made some kinds of mistakes.
In order to turn this situation, Korean brands have taken multiple measures. For example, Beijing Hyundai has further completed its product lines with a couple new models including Ruina, Sonata and ix251.6T. Another Korean brand Dongfeng YueDa Kia will also introduce hybrid K3 and K5, following KX5.
