AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/24 Report--

Hyundai Motor will close its first No. 1 plant in China, which is understood to have started construction in Shunyi, Beijing, in 2001 and started production the following year. South Korea intended to close China's oldest factory in March this year.

In 2018 sales figures, Hyundai sold just 780000 vehicles for the year, well below its target of 900000, compared with rival Nissan's 1.5 million in China and Toyota's 1.475 million in China. The sales volume of the two rivals is twice that of Hyundai, while Hyundai has a total of five factories in China, namely, Shunyi No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, Hebei's Cangzhou factory and Chongqing factory, which have a combined output of 1.65 million vehicles.

It is obvious that this is because of overcapacity that led Hyundai to close the Shunyi No.1 plant, with an idle capacity rate of 54.78%. Hyundai says 2000 employees have voluntarily resigned or moved to other factories. BAIC did not respond to this.

Hyundai entered the Chinese market in 2002 and quickly won the favor of the market because of its cost-effective advantage. From 2013 to 2016, annual sales of more than one million were recorded. In 2017, however, Hyundai's sales dropped rapidly to 780000. The reason for the decline in sales is that the structure of the product line is single, and even there are three generations of the same model in the same situation, the lack of SUV models. The most important thing is that Hyundai fails to have a clear product positioning in the minds of consumers, and the brand image is low. In addition, in terms of political issues, South Korea's deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system affects neighboring countries, resulting in a negative impact.

Hyundai Motor displayed a new Festa and a new generation of Sonata a models at this year's Shanghai Auto Show, hoping to build a brand with sports cells through iterative replacement of the products. At the same time, the introduction of the same door of Kia stiggner GT hopes to attract a new generation of post-90s consumers through new products. Beijing Hyundai, which has been focusing on "the same price, higher configuration", is not only inferior to mainstream joint venture brands, but even inferior to independent brands in terms of product parameters. On some public occasions, the management of Beijing Hyundai is not as good as its competitors.

Modern dealers in some areas hope to stimulate market sales by means of price reduction and promotion, and some dealers also offer a discount of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan at the manufacturer's guidance price. But also failed to win the market advantage. Industry insiders in the interview said it was difficult to sell cars with single-digit deliveries almost every week.

As Honda closes its UK plant and Opel shifts UK production to Europe, it is not difficult to see that the global economic situation is beginning to be gloomy under isolationism and unilateralism when it comes to modern production cuts and layoffs. the global auto industry is beginning to enter a critical period.

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