Hyundai Kia Motors will accelerate its entry to the global eco-friendly market in the New Year. The company will focus on improving performance and fuel efficiency of its strategic hybrid cars and also on expanding the eco-friendly vehicle lineup by introducing the first plug-in hybrid vehicle model. In particular, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo gave an order for the company to be established as an automobile brand focusing on eco-friendly vehicles by making thorough preparations following the exceeding of global sales by eight million this year.

On the 15th, Hyundai Kia Motors announced that a meeting of the overseas presidents was held on the 15th inside the company’s head office in Yangjae-dong, Seoul under the presidency of Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo said at the meeting, “2015 is an important year for Hyundai Kia Motor to introduce its new eco-friendly cars to the global market.” Chairman Chung ordered, “We must strive to have it established as a global eco-friendly carmaker based on thorough preparations.”

Hyundai Kia Motors plans to strengthen its risk management system and actively respond to the market changes. At the same time, the company will expand sales by blocking the attack of its competitors through successful new vehicle launch. In the New Year, especially, the new models of Hyundai Motor Company’s best-selling car Avante and Kia’s global model K5 are anticipated to lead the company’s sales. In addition, according to the global SUV market growth, the new Tucson ix and the new Sportage R are forecast to display favorable trend of sales.

The company will also introduce various vehicle models in the eco-friendly car market. Hyundai Kia Motor’s strategy is to release a Sonata plug-in hybrid model in Korea and the U.S. market for the first time and to increase the market shares of the new Sonata Hybrid and the new K5 Hybrid with an upgraded performance and fuel efficiency. In the yearend, it will demonstrate its hybrid technological power built over the years by releasing a mid-compact hybrid vehicle following Toyota and Honda, and thus will position itself as a powerful eco-friendly vehicle maker. In the global eco-friendly vehicle market, the sales volume is forecast to increase by 22.2% from this year (1.96 million) to 2.4 million cars as a result of new vehicle releases by leading carmakers and expansion of supporting policies by the governments of each country.

At the meeting, Chairman Chung encouraged the employees that are achieving more than the goals despite difficult conditions this year and checked the company’s global strategies for the New Year. For this year, Hyundai Kia Motors is forecast to sell eight million cars, which exceeds the goal set in the beginning of the year (7.86 million cars) by around 140,000.

“We still have a long way to go from the sales by eight million. It is a new starting point for us,” said Chairman Chung. He emphasized, “We must not settle down with our current achievement or be intimidate by the global economic forecast. We must march towards a bigger goal.”

Until November, Hyundai Kia Motor’s sales volume in the domestic and overseas markets was 7.25 million cars, which is an increase by 4.8% from the same period last year (6.92 million). The sales volume in Korea was 1.03 million, which increased by 2.5%. Abroad, it sold 6.21 million cars, an increase by 5.1%, despite the growth trends of leading markets in Brazil, India, the U.S. and China, which recorded a double-digit growth rate (10.6%).

Yang Jong-seok | jsyang@etnews.com