In the past two years, South Korean cars have become worse and worse sold in China, with Hyundai selling more than one million vehicles for four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016, and sales in China falling to 360,000 units in 2021.
Compared with German, Japanese, and American cars, Korean cars represented by Hyundai motors are not predominant in themselves. There are many quality problems in Korean cars, such as since its listing, Sonata has been constantly complained about by consumers, and the problems have spread throughout the engine, audio-visual system, lights, transmission and other aspects. Everyone thinks that instead of buying a Korean car, it is better to buy a Japanese car, and Koreans are arrogant and embarrassed to say that Korean cars are better than Japanese cars. If you want to buy an economical one, simply buy a domestic car, and now the quality of domestic cars is much better than before. To put it bluntly, there is no reason to buy a Korean car.
The key is that Koreans are very narrow-minded, people come to China to make money, can not do mutual benefit, exclude Chinese companies to join the industrial chain, parts are Korean-funded support. At that time, Beijing Hyundai's profits supported half of the BAIC Group, and Hyundai strongly "did not cooperate" with baic motor as a partner, which led to the core reasons for BAIC co., LTD.'s delay and failure to list as soon as possible. Therefore, if you want to develop, you still have to be independent.
Speaking of Korean cars, I can't help but think of some of the past. Another South Korean manufacturer, SsangYong Motors, is now on the brink of bankruptcy.
SsangYong Automobile broke its capital chain during the Asian financial crisis in the last century, and in 2004, SAIC Motor acquired a stake in SsangYong Automobile and became the largest shareholder. The cooperation between the two sides was very unpleasant, SAIC helped SsangYong Automobile expand into the Chinese market, but the SsangYong Automobile Union reacted fiercely to this and repeatedly asked SAIC to inject capital. SsangYong Automobile did not carry out rapid localization, resulting in no cost of road. SsangYong Automobile has applied to the court to avoid bankruptcy, and SAIC's shareholding in it has been reduced again and again, and it has gradually disassociated itself from the company. In February 2009, SAIC had to give up its controlling stake and spent nearly 4 billion yuan on a lesson from a cross-border merger.
In March 2011, India's Mahinda acquired a 70% stake in SsangYong Automobile, but SsangYong Automobile's high debt and the new crown epidemic, Mahinda could not survive. Ma Hengda had hoped that Geely and BYD would take over, but there was a lesson from the past, and the two Chinese companies gave up.
SsangYong sold the factory while looking for the "wronged boss". A while ago, SsangYong had a scandal with South Korea's new force Edison Car, but Edison also saw that the essence of SsangYong was to both want money and not want to be controlled, and refused to pay.
The future of South Korean automobiles may also bet on new energy vehicles, after all, LG and other giants have invested in new energy, but this time the transformation of the automobile industry is on the same starting line, and the competitive pressure from China is great.