Hyundai’s Zuchowski: Record Sales But Growth Less Than Hoped For
The Korean brand plans to sell 720,000 units in the U.S. in 2013, but that likely will fall short of total industry sales, which were up 8.3% through November.
December 30, 2013
Hyundai should have another record sales year in the U.S., its incoming CEO and president says, but even he concedes the brand could have done better.
“We didn’t grow as much as we wanted to grow (and) the market grew more than we did,” Dave Zuchowski tells WardsAuto in an interview Dec. 27, the same day he was named to replace John Krafcik at the top of the U.S. sales and marketing arm of the Korean automaker.
Krafcik’s contract officially expires Dec. 31 and was rumored not to have been renewed due to Hyundai’s lackluster performance this year.
Zuchowski says Hyundai should close out 2013 with 720,000 vehicles sold in the U.S., up from 703,007 in 2012, a tally 8.9% greater than 2011’s 645,691 deliveries.
Through November, Hyundai’s U.S. sales rose 2.2%, the smallest increase among brands in positive territory in the period and below the total U.S. light-vehicle sales rise of 8.3%, WardsAuto data shows. Hyundai market share through November stood at 4.6%, down from 4.9% in like-2012.
The Korean brand also in 2013 has increased incentives, although they still fall below the industry average, and boosted reliance on fleet sales, with 18% of the brand’s 56,005 November sales made to rental, government or corporate fleets.
Zuchowski says many of his goals for next year are carried over from Krafcik’s tenure, including making sure the next generations of the Genesis near-luxury sedan and Sonata midsize sedan launch well.
With the current generation of each model in its last year of production, Genesis sales, including the coupe variant, were down 8.0% through November, while Sonata sales were off 9.8% in the same period.
“Making sure we hit those launches out of the park” is his top priority, Zuchowski says, adding he wants to “continue the growth curve over the last five years that we’ve shown under John’s leadership.”
Next year should be another record year for the brand, he predicts, tracking the U.S. market increase. However, Hyundai forecasts a 15.8 million seasonally adjusted annual sales rate in 2014, below WardsAuto’s forecast of 16.3 million units.
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