Back 10 years ago, when Korean cars could be said to have unlimited scenery, including private users or operating vehicles, the market volume was very amazing. However, with the rise of independent brands, the position of Korean cars in the domestic market in recent years can be said to be more and more fragile. According to statistics, the share of Korean cars in the Chinese market in January was only 1.7%, in contrast, the share of independent brands was 45.5%, the share of German brands was 23.5%, the retail share of American brands reached 8.2%, and the retail share of Japanese brands was 19.2%. That is to say, in addition to the French cars that are difficult to brothers and sisters, Korean brands can be said to be the worst in China.
In fact, although Korean cars are not doing well in China, sales overseas and even global sales are still considerable. In 2021, it sold 6.668 million vehicles, ranking fourth in the list, higher than Honda and General Motors. Is it true that our domestic consumers do not understand the advantages of cars and do not know Korean cars?
First of all, there is the issue of sincerity, in my opinion, compared with the Japanese Sanjie next door neighbor, the Korean cars represented by Hyundai Kia do not regard the Chinese market as their "cash cow". Although it is also a joint venture route, the attitude towards the foreign market and the domestic market is completely different. Some new models and technologies are not willing to bring to China, but on the contrary, they show an all-out attitude in the face of overseas markets. This practice has found itself to work in the first decade of the 21st century, and consumers do not care much, but in recent years, consumers have increasingly learned about cars, and gradually realized that Korean cars have brought obsolete products to the domestic market over the years.
In addition, in terms of brand influence, Korean cars have always taken the "cost-effective" route in China, and the price is slightly cheaper than that of Japanese and German, and in the early years, with the title of joint venture car, it gained market sales. But now that competition has intensified, Japanese and German brands have also been forced to carry out price reduction promotions under pressure, gradually eroding to the survival price of Korean brands. At the same time, consumers' ability to buy cars has gradually improved, preferring to add a little budget or choose loans to buy Japanese and German systems. This makes the position of Korean cars in the market in an embarrassing situation.
The excessively sluggish sales of Korean cars have led to a long-term overcapacity at the factory. It is understood that the Beijing Hyundai Chongqing factory has been in a state of shutdown, and most of the workers are in a state of holiday. Beijing Hyundai's sales in 2021 will be about 380,000, a continued decline of 23.3% compared with 2020, which is far from the peak of a few years ago.
The same is true of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, which belongs to the same group as Hyundai, although it has successively launched many new cars such as K5 Kaiku, Zhipao ACE, and Jiahua, but the help for sales is still a drop in the bucket, and last year's sales were only 160,000. Long-term losses have even caused Dongfeng Motor to withdraw from cooperation, and is there any hope for Kia, which is dominated by South Korea in the future, to regain its vitality? A question mark also needs to be placed.
summary
The failure of the Korean car can not be blamed on the world, after all, everyone is on the same running line, not to mention that the Korean car also had a peak time, but at that time did not grasp the advantage that has been accumulated for a long time, and gave the market share to others in vain. Nowadays, Korean cars have entered a "lying flat" state, even if a variety of models are introduced, it is difficult to save the current sluggish state, and perhaps the only thing waiting for it is the result of "delisting".