17-year-old Beijing Hyundai to roll out seven core models for sales boost

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Beijing Hyundai is set to roll out seven core strategic models to boost its sales and brand competence, according to Yin Mengxuan, general manager of Beijing Hyundai Motor Co.,Ltd.

Established in 2002, the Sino-Korean joint venture celebrated its 17th anniversary of founding on October 18. Last year, the company saw its 10 millionth vehicle successfully roll off the production line despite the overall downturn for China's auto market. Starting 2019, Beijing Hyundai is ambitious to achieve another 10 million-unit goal over the next eight years, almost halved over the previous duration.

（Fourth-generation Tucson, photo source: Beijing Hyundai)

However, the new goal is true of an arduous task for Beijing Hyundai, which got sliding sales performance in recent two years. The automaker sold over 1 million vehicles in 2013, but the annual sales afterwards slumped to around 780 thousand units and 790 thousand units in 2017 and 2018 respectively, according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Affected by the sales downturn, the yearly capacity utilization rate had been under 50% for two straight years.

(Elantra PHEV, photo source: Beijing Hyundai)

The CPCA's figure also showed that Beijing Hyundai sold roughly 450 thousand PVs through the first nine months, a year-on-year decrease of 19.6%. To revive sales, the company has launched a series of new models such as the all-new SantaFe and the Elantra PHEV. Besides, there are several models like the all-new ix25, the tenth-generation Sonata, the Encino BEV, the SantaFe BEV to be rolled out by the end of this year.

The above mentioned product plan also demonstrates Beijing Hyundai’s layout in NEV area. Reportedly, the carmaker has revamped its Chongqing plant, which is now available for production of both fuel-burning cars and NEVs. In addition, its Beijing plant will be renovated as well to lift the PHEV outputs.