Since its arrival on the market, the Hyundai Palisade has proven to be very popular with North American buyers. In fact, this past August, the SUV was the fourth best-selling model in North America.
So what's the problem? Hyundai is reportedly struggling to keep up with demand. In fact, according to Korean news outlet Newsis, the company is currently working on scenarios that could allow it to meet North American demand.
One of those scenarios involves starting to build the Palisade at Hyundai's U.S. plant in Alabama, where other utility vehicles such as the Tucson, Santa Fe and new Santa Cruz are assembled.
The Palisade is currently produced at Hyundai's Ulsan plant in South Korea alongside the Staria van. The plant exports between 6,000 and 7,000 units of the Palisade to the U.S. each month, but demand is between 8,000 and 9,000 units.
That's called having a nice problem. But it's a problem nonetheless.
There are obstacles to bringing production stateside. Hyundai Motor Union says that moving Palisade production to the U.S. is not acceptable, again according to Newsis. The reason is not disclosed, but we can guess that it has to do with a fear of losing assets there.
Another solution would be to redistribute the vehicles produced in the different Hyundai factories in Korea. Production of the Staria, for example, could be transferred to the Jeonju plant, though that is strongly opposed by the union at the Ulsan plant. Assembly of the Palisade could also be moved to the Jeonju plant, though the problem there is that the plant is equipped to produce commercial vehicles, and there would be significant cost in converting it to accommodate the Palisade, according to reports.
Hyundai has apparently not yet made a decision on how to resolve the supply-demand problem for the Palisade, but time is of the essence. As they say, time is money.