I can’t sell it because I can’t find it in the US alone… Hyundai Motor that chooses the money that makes money

Photo courtesy of Hyundai Motor Company.

Hyundai Motor Company has decided to increase hybrid car production next year by 15% compared to this year. It is a strategy to stock up live ammunition by focusing on the best-selling model right now between the bad news of the past caused by the expansion of the Theta 2 gasoline engine recall provision and the future problem of stopping subsidies for electric vehicles in the US.

According to industry sources on the 20th, Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan plant recently explained its plans to produce next year’s Ulsan engine plant to employees of the engine business division. The key is to increase engine production by 15% (180,000 units) from 1.24 million this year to 1.42 million next year. Most of the increment is a hybrid engine. The Ulsan engine plant accounts for 60% of Hyundai Motor’s total domestic production, so the direction of the business plan for next year can be estimated.

The reason Hyundai Motor plans to mass-produce hybrid cars is because the global market demand is still high. Demand for hybrid cars is shifting from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles. Hyundai Motor Company sold 179,406 global hybrid cars until September this year, up 10.5 percent from the same period last year. The number of Kia units surged 105.2 percent to 119,210 units. Considering that Hyundai Motor’s cumulative global sales fell 1.0% in September and Kia increased 2.0%, the popularity of hybrid cars can be felt.

In the aftermath of global inflation, the profit and loss structure of the electric vehicle business deteriorated and demand contracted, which is why Hyundai Motor Company began mass production of hybrid cars. As the transition period for electric vehicle conversion is longer than expected, the hybrid car market share is expected to exceed 10% by 2026.

“Hybrid cars are so positive in terms of profit and loss that it is difficult to compare them with electric vehicles,” said Yoo Ji-woong, a researcher at Daol Investment & Securities.

“If you survive, you can invest in electric vehicles”… Hyundai Motor reverses hybrid production increase
15% increase in production next year… New record sales this year, including Santa Fe

Last year, Hyundai Motor Group’s hybrid car sales reached an all-time high of 366,665 units. By September this year, 376,616 units had already been sold, surpassing the previous year’s performance. At this rate, there is a high possibility that the number of units per year will exceed 400,000 for the first time in history. This is the background for Hyundai Motor Company to start mass production of hybrid cars next year.

According to the industry on the 20th, sales of hybrid models for some models of Hyundai Motor in Korea increased to nearly half that of internal combustion engine engines. For the Santa Fe, 45.1% of domestic sales (January to September) are hybrid models. In some Kia models, hybrids have surpassed internal combustion engine models. Hybrids account for 72.4% of Sorento’s domestic sales. This is the reason for the longest waiting time for shipment among Kia models.

Even in the United States, there are no hybrid cars, so they cannot be sold. By September, Hyundai-Kia hybrid models sold 84,526 units in the US, up 28.9% from the previous year. Although it does not reach the growth rate of electric vehicles (212.0%), it is twice that of electric vehicles in terms of the number of units sold (47,095 units). In the US, Kia hybrid cars are sold at more than 8% higher price than the listed price because they have the most ‘outside’. Hybrid models also played a major role in Hyundai Motor and Kia’s 3rd place in European market share until September.

Hybrid models are popular even without subsidies because they have better fuel efficiency than internal combustion locomotives and do not have a charging burden. The fact that the power performance exceeds that of the internal combustion engine is also cited as the reason why the popularity of hybrid cars is not cooling down.

The market believes that the heyday of hybrid models will continue for the time being. Daol Investment & Securities predicted in a recent report that the global market share of hybrid cars will increase from 4.9% this year to 10.6% in 2026. The time when the electric vehicle market share reaches 20% is expected to be delayed from 2025 to 2026. It is predicted that the era of ‘electric vehicles only’ will not come as soon as expected by automobile manufacturers and the market. This means that they overlooked the fact that the spread of EV charging infrastructure is slower than expected.

Hyundai Motor Group expects that the proportion of hybrid car and electric vehicle sales will reach 28.0% and 25.1%, respectively, by 2026. For the time being, industry analysts believe that companies with various powertrains will have an edge in the global automobile market rather than sticking to only electric vehicles. An industry official said, “The battle between the Korean and Japanese camps that have invested in hybrid hybrids and the German and American camps that have chosen a strategy to go straight to electric vehicles is fierce. said.

By Kim Il-gyu/Park Han-shin/Kim Hyung-gyu reporter [email protected]