"Buy an Avante for 40 Million Won?" Hyundai Motor Struggles Against Chinese Offensive

A delivery worker flies through the sky in a car to deliver food, and a fast-food drive-thru towers high up in the air.

These are parody videos that flooded social media after Tesla unveiled its flying new sports car, the Roadster, on the 15th.

While Tesla has astonished the world with its new technology, concerns are concurrently growing in South Korea over Hyundai Motor's recent sharp decline in sales.

Hyundai's global sales decreased by 16% compared to the previous month, and domestic sales plummeted by 25.7%. Experts pointed to the absence of a low-cost electric vehicle lineup and the offensive from Chinese automakers as Hyundai's biggest weaknesses at present.

[Lee Jae-il / Automotive Analyst: If you look at what is being pointed out as Hyundai's current weaknesses, first of all, it is in a state where an affordable EV lineup is somewhat absent. So right now, BYD is entering the domestic market, and models like the Tesla Model Y are being imported cheaply from China. Without a model to defend against this, it is losing market share in the domestic market.]

Value-for-money issues were also raised, with consumers saying that given similar prices, they ultimately end up choosing models with better cost-effectiveness, commenting as follows:

[Kwon Soon-woo / Managing Director, Sampro TV: People say the car with the best value for money these days is the Model Y. So in the past, what was the car with the best value for money? It used to be cars like the Sonata, Santa Fe, or Avante, for example. But of course, this is when you factor in all the options, but if they try to sell an Avante for over 40 million won, that is a price that makes you hesitant to reach for your wallet.]

Experts advised that while sluggish quarterly earnings cannot be definitively labeled as a "crisis for Hyundai," it is certainly a time when a clear future strategy is needed.

[Kwon Soon-woo / Managing Director, Sampro TV: There is certainly an aspect where the era of autonomous driving or electric vehicles is arriving a bit late, but Chinese automakers are showcasing this so globally right now that the U.S. and Europe seem to be pondering with much greater seriousness than we are that we can no longer just buy time and hold out.]

Netizens who came across the news showed various reactions, such as "If Hyundai doesn't prepare properly, a real crisis might come," "Tesla's technology is amazing no matter how many times you see it," and "I can't believe the era has come where we are even falling behind Chinese cars."

(Planned by Yoon Sung-sik, Video edited by Kim Na-on, Video source: News Hunters, Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.