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Automaker News
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Wednesday, 04 February 2009 00:00 |
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Page 1 of 2
 Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s largest carmakers, defied lower U.S. demand in January to help Asian car manufacturers grab record market share and outsell U.S.-based competitors.
Hyundai’s U.S. sales gained 14 percent after it began a program to let customers who lose jobs return cars. Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest automaker, posted a 32 percent decline, Honda Motor Co. fell 28 percent and Nissan Motor Co. fell 30 percent.
“Toyota and Honda may be feeling some pressure from smaller brands, particularly Hyundai with its buyback program,” said Jesse Toprak, director of analysis for auto-research firm Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California. “Hyundai’s program seems to have really dealt with a core issue of making consumers feel more secure about a purchase.”
The gain for Seoul-based Hyundai was one of the few bright spots last month as auto sales withered amid mounting job losses and dwindling consumer confidence. Sales in the U.S., the world’s biggest auto market, dropped to the lowest unit total since December 1981, according to Autodata Corp.
Japanese and South Korean brands held a combined 49.5 percent share of the market last month, their highest ever, as U.S.-based competitors fell to a record low 42.5 percent, according to Woodcliff, New Jersey-based Autodata. Asian brands first overtook U.S. automakers in market share in June 2008.
Won, Yen
The Korean companies have also been aided by the won, the worst performing Asian currency this year. The won has dropped 31 percent against the dollar in the last 12 months, compared with the yen’s 19 percent gain against the U.S. currency.
Industrywide deliveries tumbled 37 percent to 656,976 as the recession ravaged demand. That translates into an annual rate of 9.6 million after an average of more than 16 million vehicles in this decade.
General Motors Corp. had a 49 percent decline, Ford Motor Co.’s sales fell 40 percent and Chrysler LLC’s plunged 55 percent.
Toyota, which grabbed the global sales title from GM in 2008, sold 117,287 vehicles last month, down from 171,849 a year ago. Excluding the Toyota City, Japan-based company’s new Venza wagon, sales fell for every Toyota, Lexus and Scion model in January.
“There’s belt-tightening happening at every aspect of our business,” Bob Carter, U.S. vice president of Toyota brand sales, said in a conference call yesterday.
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