According to the article the invasion of Ukraine has cost Hyundai $374 million in lost sales in Russia:
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| Hyundai Motor’s plant in St. Petersburg, Russia / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor |
Hyundai Motor saw its sales plunge to an all-time low in Russia last month, according to the Association of European Business (AEB), Sunday.
Korea Times
The association said Hyundai Motor sold only six vehicles in August, which accounts for 0.01 percent of the Russian market share, down 99.9 percent from 2,982 cars a year earlier.
“I’m not quite sure if the company managed to sell even six,” an automobile industry official said. “It is virtually kicking the dirt there.”
The carmaker sold 1,605 cars in Russia during the first eight months this year, a 96.5 percent-drop from the same period last year. The largely botched business this year allowed the company just 0.4 percent of the Russian market share.
Hyundai’s lackluster performance is as dramatic as its former prominence in the market before the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in February last year. With its factory in St. Petersburg ― the only one in Russia ― pipelining 220,000 vehicles each year, including popular models like Solaris and Creta, its market share in the country used to be top over all.
But the invasion upended business for Hyundai’s Russian office. While rival foreign brands there vacated the country, Hyundai remained and kept producing cars until July 2022. At the end of that year, the company had sold 45,000 cars. Since 2012, the company sold over 200,000 cars annually.
Hyundai’s Russian factory finally gave up and ceased manufacturing operations this year.
You can read more at the link.
The IRA may have the intended effect of forcing foreign manufacturers such as Hyundai to increase U.S. based manufacturing and getting rid of their Chinese batteries:
Hyundai Motor Group is facing an uphill battle in the U.S. market for electric vehicles (EV), because its car brands ― Hyundai Motor, Kia and Genesis ― were not included on a list of EVs eligible for up to $7,500 in subsidies granted by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), according to industry officials, Tuesday.
Korea Times
Previously, EVs could qualify for the tax credit as long as they were assembled in North America, but they had to meet stricter battery requirements.
However, detailed guidance measures released last month guarantee only a $3,750 subsidy for EVs that use at least 50 percent of battery components manufactured and assembled in North America, even if the vehicles were assembled in the region. Another $3,750 is available when at least 40 percent of key minerals used in the batteries are mined and processed in the U.S. or its free trade agreement partners.
Under the detailed guidelines of the IRA, EVs manufactured by Hyundai did not make the list. The Electrified GV70, an SUV model of the group’s luxury brand Genesis, was also excluded as it is equipped with Chinese batteries.
In addition to Hyundai Motor Group’s EVs, other brands such as Nissan, which was eligible for the subsidy because it has factories in North America, were also dropped from the list. The eligible cars are made by American brands such as Tesla, Ford, GM and Stellantis.
In response, Hyundai Motor Group said it plans to increase EV production in the U.S. over the long term, aiming to become a leader in the market for such vehicles. The group added it will actively utilize lease sales that qualify for tax credits.
You can read more at the link.
This is another reason why something needs to be done about illegal immigration, to stop the exploitation of children:
At least four major suppliers of Hyundai Motor and sister Kia have employed child labor at Alabama factories in recent years, a Reuters investigation found, and state and federal agencies are probing whether kids have worked at as many as a half dozen additional manufacturers throughout the automakers’ supply chain in the southern U.S. state.
At a plant owned by Hwashin America, a supplier to the two car brands in the south Alabama town of Greenville, a 14-year-old Guatemalan girl worked this May assembling auto body components, according to interviews with her father and law enforcement officials. (……)Earlier this year, Reuters showed how staffing agencies in rural Alabama recruited undocumented workers from Central America, including minors who had entered the U.S. without parents or guardians, and supplied them to chicken processing plants.
Korea Times
As with those minors, at least some of the children who worked at Hyundai suppliers used false identities and documentation obtained through black-market brokers, sometimes with the help of staffing firms themselves.
You can read more at the link.
Not a good look for Hyundai’s EV program:
Hyundai Motor Co. said Wednesday it will replace batteries in some 82,000 Kona EV and two other electric vehicles sold globally due to potential fire risks, which could cost about 1 trillion won (US$899.7 million).
Hyundai will begin the replacement of the battery management system (BMS) in 75,680 Kona EVs, 5,716 IONIQ EV and 305 Elec City buses from March 29 in the domestic market and from April in overseas markets, the company said in a statement.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
There have been rumors about Apple wanting to get into the car business and are apparently close to a deal with Hyundai to do just that:
Hyundai Motor and Apple Inc plan to sign a partnership deal on autonomous electric cars by March and start production around 2024 in the United States, local newspaper Korea IT News reported on Sunday.
The report follows a statement on Friday from Hyundai Motor that it was in early talks with Apple after another local media outlet said the companies aimed to launch a self-driving electric car in 2027, sending Hyundai shares up nearly 20%.
Hyundai Motor declined to comment on the report on Sunday, and reiterated Friday’s comments that it has received requests for potential cooperation from various companies on developing autonomous EVs.
Reuters
You can read more at the link.
Apparently some woman in Pyeongtaek got angry at the owner of a MiniStop in Pyeongtaek for not submitting her daughter’s picture for some art contest MiniStop was holding. You can see the shop’s owner at the end of the video try to fight the woman after she is apprehended:
Just imagine how this situation would have ended if she would had tried to smash her car into a police car in the United States. The police in Pyeongtaek showed a lot of restraint by not escalating the situation. Also talk about a great commercial for the Hyundai Genesis, that car appears to be indestructible inside that MiniStop.
