Hyundai is counting on a record year in Europe

It is just not as big as sister brand Kia, but Hyundai is also doing very good business in Europe. Last year Hyundai took a market share of 4.6 percent in Europe (compared to 4.8 percent for Kia) and here in the Netherlands Hyundai even accounted for 5.47 percent. That was already the largest market share ever for the South Korean brand in our country, but it is now also on course for its best year ever in Europe. That expects Hyundai Europe CEO Michael Cole.

In an interview with Autonews Cole indicates that in 2023 it will still have a smaller market share than last year, but that does not tell the whole story, according to him. “We did a much better job in 2022 than most of the others in managing our inventory, so we delivered cars much faster. What you saw in the first six months of this year is that many car manufacturers’ sales rebounded strongly as they were hit so hard in the first half of 2022. As a result, we lost some market share at Hyundai, but we are not worried.” On the contrary: Cole is counting on record figures when this year is over. “I believe this year will be a record year for us, even though the industry is still about 20 percent behind 2019.”

In the Netherlands, it will probably not be a record year for Hyundai in terms of absolute numbers. The counter currently stands at 10,826 cars this year, compared to more than 17,000 throughout 2022. So the pace is good, but it is logically not fast enough to surpass record year 2011, when Hyundai sold 23,602 cars here. In terms of market share, 2022 was a record year with the aforementioned share of 5.47 percent and 2023 is close to that record. For the time being, Hyundai has a market share of 5.34 percent in the Netherlands this year. Perhaps the new Hyundai Kona can boost that a bit.