Slumping Hyundai, Kia Drag Down Asians' U.S. Market Share
Hyundai sees its market share fall 0.3% through September, while Kia is off 0.5%.
October 31, 2013
After taking back the top spot in U.S. market share in 2012, Asian automakers may lose their standing this year.
While Asian OEMs trumped the North Americans in 2012, they trail the group that consists of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Tesla through September, WardsAuto data shows.
Asian manufacturers accounted for 45.6% of all U.S. light-vehicle deliveries in the year’s first nine months, down from 46.0% in like-2012.
North American automakers held a 45.4% slice of U.S. LV sales through September, up from 44.8% year-ago. Europeans’ share of U.S. LV sales fell slightly, to 9.0% compared with 9.1% year-ago.
The drop in U.S. market share by Asian automakers largely is due to weakness at Hyundai and Kia. The sister Korean brands have struggled in the U.S. in 2013, as their lineups age and competitors launch fresher product.
Kia’s U.S. market share through September fell to 3.5% from 4.0% prior-year on weak sales of its Forte and Soul cars and Sportage CUV.
Hyundai’s slice of U.S. LV demand slipped to 4.7% from 5.0% in the January-September 2012 period.
Sales of five of the six Hyundai car models sold in the U.S. were down through September, with Hyundai delivering 22,644 fewer Sonata midsize sedans in the period vs. like-2012.
Some 99.1% of the 55,102 Hyundais sold in the U.S. last month were ’13 models, according to TrueCar data. Audi led with the highest percentage of ’14 models sold in September, 87.1%.
Typically, the higher the amount of previous-model-year vehicles a manufacturer carries over into the next model year, the higher its incentives.
Yet, while Hyundai, along with Kia, did see the biggest increase in incentive spending in September, up 27.1%, its spiffs were below industry average.
Hyundai and Kia put an average $1,652 on the hood in September, TrueCar says, below the $2,382 industry-average incentive for the month and second-lowest behind Acura/Honda’s $1,431.
Hyundai and Kia are not the only Asian brands seeing market share decline in 2013. Acura, Infiniti and Toyota each slipped 0.1% through September.
Toyota started the year strong, growing its U.S. LV share in the year’s first two months to 14.6% from 13.8%. But sales, up 7.6% in the year’s first three quarters, are not growing as fast as those of competing brands.
For instance, Subaru deliveries rose 27.7% through September, giving it a 2.7% share of the U.S. LV market, from 2.3% year-ago.
Dodge and Ford-brand share is up 0.6% each from year-ago, on sales increases of 19.9% and 12.4%, respectively.
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