By Jamie Barrie H yundai Motor Co. told Reuters recently that it plans to launch a pickup in the United States and has given the green light for development of a pickup similar to a show vehicle back in 2015 called the Santa Cruz as part of a broader plan to catch the market demand that is shifting away from sedans towards crossovers and small SUV in one of the Korean automaker’s most important markets. This is not the only new product news from Hyundai Motor Co., as the company will be launching their new Kona subcom- pact crossover in Canada and the United States. Buyers can start to see the Kona hitting the dealerships in the early part of 2018 and plans are to launch three other new or refreshed crossovers by 2020. Hyundai plans to also roll out a new version of its Santa Fe Sport midsize crossover next year, followed by an all-new sev- en-passenger crossover that will replace a current three-row Santa Fe in early 2019 in the United Sates. It has also been leaked that a newly redesigned Tucson crossover is expected in 2020. Hyundai Canada says it’s considering bringing a pickup to Canada, but a decision on the Canadian market hasn’t been made. However, with total Canadian sales down 9.1 percent, with sales continuing to shift from cars to SUVs it seems like a no brainer to bring the Santa Cruz into Canada.
New product offerings are what Hyundai needs right now as sales are softening in the U.S. also, seeing sales down nearly 11 percent year over year.
Hyundai’s dealers on both sides of the border have been pushing the company to invest more aggressively in light trucks as demand for the midsize Sonata and Elantra sedans continue to decline, but dealerships are very optimistic that these new product offers will help them recapture lost sales and customers.
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OCTOBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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