The deteriorating Korean car once again hit the head, and Beijing Hyundai shut down its second car factory in China. There is really not much time left for Beijing Hyundai, and perhaps the end of The Korean car has arrived.
1. Beijing Hyundai shut down its second plant?
Public media reports show that Beijing Hyundai's factory in Chongqing may be in a state of shutdown. According to people familiar with the matter, the Chongqing factory has long had no output, and most of the workers are on holiday, in fact, they have stopped production since December last year. The leak in the house was even rainy, and this news seemed to be drunk on the head, which made Beijing Hyundai feel embarrassed. It should be known that beijing hyundai's first factory in the Shunyi area of Beijing has been sold to ideal cars. It is reported that the first plant has a production capacity of about 300,000 vehicles, and has produced best-selling models such as Elantra, Sonata, Tucson and Accent.
2. Five consecutive years of sharp decline in annual sales?
At its peak, Beijing Hyundai had five factories in China, three in Beijing, and one each in Chongqing and Cangzhou. Now the first factory has been sold to Ideal Car, there are rumors that the second factory in Beijing will also buy a millet car, and the Chongqing factory will also sell to Ideal Car again. Now the news of the suspension of work and production in the Chongqing factory seems to confirm the previous rumors one by one. If the above rumors come true, then Beijing Hyundai will only have two factories left in China: the third factory in Beijing, the Cangzhou factory. Even so, Beijing's Hyundai may still be overcapacitated, as its sales have plummeted for five consecutive years.
Founded in 2002, Beijing Hyundai has entered the "Annual Sales Million Club" since 2013, and as of 2016, its sales volume is 1.03 million, 1.16 million, 1.06 million and 1.14 million, respectively. But since 2017, Beijing Hyundai has been deteriorating, and one year is not as good as a year. In 2017, it plunged 31% year-on-year to 785,000 units; in 2018, it was basically flat at 790,000 units; in 2019, it fell 5.7% to only 716,000 units; in 2020, it fell again by 28.6% to 502,000 units; and in 2021, it fell 23% to only 382,000 units.
3. The end of the Korean car?
Similar to Beijing Hyundai, another Car company in China, Dongfeng Yueda Kia, also began to go downhill in 2017, and the speed of slipping to the bottom is even more amazing, with sales of 359,000 units, 370,000 units, 289,800 units, 249,000 units and 158,500 units from 2017 to 2021, respectively. Mired in the quagmire of declining sales, even the Chinese partner Dongfeng Motor has also played a retreat, and has officially withdrawn from Dongfeng Yueda Kia not long ago. According to the data, the market share of Korean cars in China has plummeted from 7.35% in 2016 to 2.4% in 2021, and fell to 1.7% in January this year.
Obviously, Korean cars have completely fallen out of favor in China, and the end may be coming. First of all, the product strength of Korean cars is already behind the times. In the past, other joint venture brands such as The Korean car card slot Germany, the United States and Japan were not looked up to, and weak independent brands were unable to reach the field of upward mobility, with the advantage of high cost performance. However, under the fierce competition in the stock market now, German-American-Japanese joint venture brands have lowered their prices, and the already powerful independent car companies have also branded upwards, and the advantages of Korean cars in the past with high cost performance have disappeared, and the market share has naturally been squeezed and eroded by both directions.
Secondly, the brand power of Korean cars is weak. The brand power of Korean cars is originally poor, and in the past, it was only in the Korean wave assists of Korean culture and industry that gained a lot of "Hahan" fans. However, with the occurrence of events such as the THAAD incident and the Korean restriction order, as well as the controversial moves of South Korean athletes at the recent Winter Olympics, the ideological game between the two peoples has intensified, and the Chinese people's desire to spy on Korean culture has been greatly reduced. As a result, the consumer's expectations and enthusiasm for the entire Korean brand have gradually dropped to the freezing point, the decline of Samsung and LG, the departure of the automobile company Ssangyong, etc. are all evidences, and the influence of modern brands has become more and more weakened.