Hyundai/Kia jumps Ford
Ford lost 30 per cent of its global sales during the first half of 2009, leaving a slot open ahead of it for Hyundai and KiaA 30 per cent shortfall during the first half of 2009 has left Ford one ranking lower on the totem pole of global automotive sales. Just 8000 units separated the Blue Oval brand from the mob that displaced it, the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group. But that difference was enough to hand Hyundai-Kia fourth position among the ranks of global car companies -- and push Ford back to fifth.
According to Automotive News' 2008 Global Data Book, Ford sold 2,145,000 vehicles in the year-to-date as at the end of June. This represented a -30.6 per cent variation from the figure of 3,093,000 posted for the same period last year.
The Korean automotive group sold 2,153,000 vehicles for the first half of 2009 -- 8000 units ahead of Ford's result. Kia's press office in the UK advises that Hyundai/Kia trailed Ford by around a million units for the full year, 2008, so the change in fortunes has been sudden.
Plainly Hyundai/Kia's elevation to fourth place -- after Toyota, General Motors and Volkswagen, in that order -- caught the Koreans by surprise, since they were quite happy with fifth place just two months ago.
When the Carsales Network visited South Korean at the end of June for the drive of Kia's new Sorento and Cerato Koup, Kia's Deputy GM of the Overseas Communications Team, Michael Choo, was pleased to report that the combined sales of Hyundai and Kia had lifted the group into fifth place for global auto sales.
"As a group, Hyundai and Kia Motors, together, are now the fifth largest automotive maker in the world, in terms of both global sales, as well as production," he announced.
"We sell more cars now than many major Japanese, European and US auto makers," he continued, before acknowledging that the global sales hierarchy was bound to be volatile in light of recent events.
"It's going to be interesting to see obviously, what happens with the emergence of Fiat, as well as the break-up of GM."
That's still the case now and while there's little reason to suggest that Hyundai and Kia won't hang on to that coveted fourth spot, this is still a year in two halves.
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