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Hyundai aiming high

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Time 5:06 pm, October 13, 2010

hyundai-tony-whitehornTIMES may be tough for the motor industry, but scrappage star Hyundai still hopes to increase its sales in 2010.

And the firm’s UK managing director Tony Whitehorn doesn’t want to stop there – he believes sales will rise AGAIN next year too.

In 2008 the marque sold 27,000 cars in the UK, in 2009 on the back of the scrappage scheme this rose to 57,000, and by the end of 2010 he hopes to register 62,000 cars.


‘Next year we think we’ll sell even more,’ said Whitehorn. ‘We’re aiming for 67,000 cars and that’s in a market that’s declining between seven and 10 per cent.

‘In fact we think the overall market for next year will only be 1.8m cars. That will be tough for everyone but we’ll benefit from a host of new products and that will help us increase our market share from 2.7 per cent to three per cent.’

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Whitehorn says that the scrappage scheme was the ‘best advert we could ever have hoped for’ putting more Hyundais on the road than the brand could ever have imagined.

‘Those sales under the scrappage scheme gave us a higher profile,’ he added. ‘We’ve now got more credibility and that means we can capitalise as we go forward.’

Whitehorn was speaking to Car Dealer at the launch of the new ix20, the brand’s B segment MPV.

He believes this car will play an important role in increasing market share for dealers, particularly in the motability market.

‘The ix20 is a perfect car for motability customers,’ he said. ‘There are three million people eligible for motability in the UK and every year only 100-120,000 people take up that opportunity.

‘That’s a massive potential market for our dealers and the ix20 is the ideal car for them to capitalise with.’

By JAMES BAGGOTT

James Baggott's avatar

James is the founder and editor-in-chief of Car Dealer Magazine, and CEO of parent company Baize Group. James has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years writing about cars and the car industry.



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