New Hyundai boss unveils 100K sales strategy

Rebuild Hyundai in Australia and take a chunk out of Toyota’s sales domination along the way.

That’s the mandate the new boss of the Korean auto giant’s local arm, Canadian Don Romano, has arrived with.

Romano, who has been in his job as President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company Australia for only eight weeks, outlined a comprehensive renewal of the business at last week’s launch of the Inster EV.

At the core of Romano’s tenure is a reversal of Hyundai’s shrinking sales. They hit a peak beyond 100,000 in 2014 to 2016 but had slumped to 71,664 in 2024, according to VFACTS.

“If you’re not growing you’re shrinking, because everyone is coming at you,” Romano told carsales.

“We have never seen a time like we have seen today. It is unprecedented with all these other brands just ready to come after you and take your market share and grow.”

Romano made it clear he wants to put the building blocks in place for Hyundai to have stable progress in Australia.

“Not crazy growth,” he said. “I’m not looking  to get to 100,000 in my time [in Australia], but if we continue to go three, four per cent as we continue to grow sustainably over time, we can do that profitably, we can do it the right way, we can do it through the right products.”

And Romano made it clear one of his objectives is to knock Toyota down a peg or two. The market leader for the last 22 years routinely claims more than 20 per cent share and 200,000 sales, easily doubling its nearest pursuer.

“I would like to see this a little bit better balanced market where there isn’t just one major dominant competitor, where there is a number of good competitors fighting it out like we see in other markets,” Romano said.

He said he’d like to see sister brand Kia and others join Hyundai in hacking into Toyota’s sales.

“I think collectively, how do you take on someone so dominant in the market? I want to see them [Kia] succeed and some of our other competitors succeed.”

Romano outlined a number of initiatives designed to boost the Hyundai business locally, including:

Of course, product is a cornerstone of Romano’s ambitions and he has already generated headlines with his determination to get a Hyundai dual-cab ute signed off – if not on sale – before he leaves.

But he has also committed to stay the course with EVs despite Hyundai’s struggles for sales. Hyundai Australia will import its first China-sourced EV, the Elexio, in 2026, which should be price competitive against the BYD Sealion 7 and the Tesla Model Y.

Romano also wants to reboot Hyundai’s local small passenger car lineup by re-introducing the i20 as a mainstream model and – at the least – negotiating cheaper pricing for the i30.

He also intends to quickly grow Hyundai’s hybrid lineup in Australia: “To me that’s an easy way to grow four to five per cent in the near term.”

Hyundai currently offers petrol-electric hybrid versions of the i30 sedan, Kona small SUV, Tucson medium SUV and Santa Fe large SUV. It will introduce a new-generation hybrid with the Palisade large SUV before the end of 2025.

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