Beijing Hyundai Motor to unveil new sedan model

Joint-venture carmaker Beijing Hyundai Motor Company plans to launch the new-generation Sonata with the code name of NFC in late 2008 or early 2009, with a view to further expanding in the segment medium- and high-end vehicle market. 

Co-founded by Beijing Automobile Investment Co., Ltd. and Hyundai Corporation of South Korea on October 18, 2002, Beijing Hyundai Motor owns a total registered capital of USD 886.8 million.

Presently, the company faces a great challenge of brand cognition upgrade now, so it will insist on the regular debut of new products in the near future, said the Beijing Hyundai Motor General Manager J.M. Noh.

As a hi-tech sedan model focusing on the Chinese market, NFC is revised from the Sonata car model, which was developed as early as 1985, and has munch advantage in engine, safety, and collocation. It is expected to elevate the power efficiency by 13%, while the oil consumption will decrease 6%.

Beijing Hyundai Motor expects that more customers can be charmed by such a significant product, on the background of furious competition in China's medium- and high-end vehicle market, said people with the direct knowledge of the matter.

Along with the financial crisis and downturn of vehicle markets worldwide, more automobile tycoons aim at China now. A series of hi-end sedan models, such as Camry, new Accord, new Teana, and new Mazda 6, are expected to further extend reaches to the Chinese market in the not-too-distant future.

After NFC hits the market, Beijing Hyundai Motor will never produce the Sonata NF, which cannot satisfy most Chinese customers due to the unreasonable market positioning. However, the Sonata NF is sold at a lower price in the US, winning great favor of the local blue collar.

In the entire 2007, about 133,800 and 119,100 units of the Sonata NF were sold in the US and South Korea, respectively, while the sales volume in Mainland China was only 14,000.

Elantra has been outracing other car models of Beijing Hyundai Motor in terms of sales, since the JV started running business in China six years ago. From January to September 2008, Beijing Hyundai Motor aggregately sold 219,300 vehicles in the domestic market, and the Elantra HDC sales volume had exceeded 60,000 as of October 8.

On April 6, 2008, the Elantra HDC rolled off the production line, and the Beijing-located automaker expected to sell around 100,000 Elantra HDCs in the entire 2008.