How Hyundai Motor, once a rising star, lost its shine

Dealers blame poor sales on local rivals' rise and its lack of suitable new models

A Sonata hybrid on display at a vehicles expo in Beijing recently. Hyundai Motor says it is closely cooperating with China's BAIC Motor to turn around its China business.
A Sonata hybrid on display at a vehicles expo in Beijing recently. Hyundai Motor says it is closely cooperating with China's BAIC Motor to turn around its China business. PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL/DETROIT/CHONGQING • At a near-empty Hyundai Motor showroom in the Chinese mega city of Chongqing, the store manager is grumbling about his shortage of customers and a lack of bigger, cheaper SUV models popular in the world's largest car market.

Even with discounts of as much as 25 per cent, his dealership was selling barely a hundred vehicles a month, said the manager, a Mr Li. A nearby Nissan dealership was selling about 400 vehicles a month, a store manager there said.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 07, 2018, with the headline How Hyundai Motor, once a rising star, lost its shine. Subscribe