According to industry sources on Monday, Hyundai’s Chairman Chung Mong-koo said at a meeting that the company aims to produce and sell 350,000 hybrid cars annually, or more than 11 times the number it sold last year. It aims to achieve its target by 2015.
In terms of global sales of hybrids, Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors sold about 30,000 units of the Sonata and K5 mid-sized cars last year, or just fraction of the number sold by Toyota (630,000 units) and Honda (197,000 units).
Hyundai and Kia sold 16,000 hybrid cars in the first four months of this year, meaning sales would have to jump more than sevenfold to achieve the newly set annual target. Hyundai said it aims to achieve its goals by improving fuel-efficiency, strengthening domestic demand and targeting Europe.
The U.S. is the only overseas market for Hyundai's hybrid cars at present. This fall, it plans to release upgraded versions of the Sonata and K5 hybrid sedans there. It will start selling them in Korea around the end of this year. Hyundai aims to drastically enhance the fuel-efficiency of the two models (currently 21 km/l) to outperform the Toyota Camry hybrid (23.6 km/l).
No comments:
Post a Comment