Hyundai Expected to Expand Product Line to Include Full-Size Trucks, SUVs and Luxury Cars
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| Sporty cars like the newly revised Tiburon coupe have helped to raise Hyundai's profile in North America. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
On Friday Hyundai Motor Co., which is 10% owned by DaimlerChrysler, reported record sales. Still, due to new accounting changes the automaker missed profit forecasts.
While sales jumped to US$6.09 billion from US$4.6 billion over 3 months ending in December, Hyundai earned US$210.9 million in net profit compared to US$251.4 billion for the same time period in the previous year.
Hyundai was expected to report US$2.6 million in net profits on US$5.5 billion in sales, but the auto company had changed certain accounting rules, bringing forward the reflection of costs expended on research and development in its books - negative in the short term but positive overall.
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| The Hyundai Sonata offers a lot of presence for its paltry sum. There's substance behind the style too, with interior quality that rivals and even surpasses some Japanese makes. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Regarding R&D, auto market analysts believe the South Korean company's steady climb up the social acceptance ladder has much to do with an increase in product quality, improved styling and performance, a move that has helped to change the brand's image in North America.
Hyundai believes this claim as well, and now clearly has its targets set on the likes of Toyota, Nissan and Honda, each considered to be among the quality leaders of the low to mid-priced auto market. In order to achieve continual improvement in all areas the brand is increasing research and development spending by 50%, to a combined total of US$1.8 billion - also shared with South Korean affiliate Kia Motors Corp.