Revitalised Hyundai on track for Vision 2025 target of 100k sales

Amid a year of supply constraints and falling volumes, one car manufacturer is reaping the rewards of a reinvigorated sales strategy which saw its true fleet registrations more than double in 2021.

Hyundai has overhauled its approach to the fleet market, freely confessing to “chasing volume” in the years leading up to the Covid pandemic. It resulted in the corporate end-user accounting for just 8% of fleet sales.

The rest was tactical, short-cycle business, which had an inevitable impact on residual values (RVs) leading to uncompetitive leasing rates.

Official Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) figures reveal that 15% of Hyundai’s total registrations were to the rental market in 2018, markedly ahead of the industry average of 9%.

“We were not in control of our own strategy,” says Tim White (left), who was appointed fleet director in May 2021 and was the architect of the new approach.

Hyundai’s revival is down to much more than a refocusing of its channel tactics. It coincides with new electric product which is helping the company to ride the zeitgeist in an era of fleet sustainability, while the launch of Hyundai Business has resulted in a more defined customer journey for both drivers and fleets.