Hyundai may roll over the top of Holden in 2015

Hyundai Australia's Public Relations General Manager, Bill Thomas, has told motoring.com.au this week that the importer is not fixated with the VFACTS top 10, the company just wants to meet its own sales targets.

But Thomas did acknowledge that 2015 was shaping up to be a "solid" year for sales, with the very real prospect of Hyundai leap-frogging Holden into third place, behind Toyota and Mazda.

"We don't really look at that leader board, we just have our own target to hit," he said. "If that means we overtake one of the others to become top three, then great, but I think Mazda is very strong again this year. We may overtake Holden; I think it's more likely we'll overtake Holden than Mazda."

That would normally sound like so much PR chest-beating, but VFACTS figures for the year so far support the case. Last month, Holden's year to date tally was 24,781 – down 2638 sales from the same period in 2013. In contrast, Hyundai posted sales of 23,613 last month, marginally ahead of its 2013 year to date figure of 23,560. Hyundai is just 1168 sales behind Holden at this point.

And Hyundai, with former Holden staffer John Elsworth in the position of COO, is bound to snatch market share and sales from wherever it can, using whatever tactics are available to it, including a one per cent finance deal announced yesterday for Accent, Elantra, Sonata and Genesis.

The low-interest finance has been rolled out because "those model lines need a push," as Thomas explained it. A quite aggressive incentive in the marketplace, the low-interest finance is offered in conjunction with drive-away pricing for the Accent and Elantra, and is available to customers purchasing any of the four cars with no deposit.

While Hyundai has been the star of the Australian new-car market in recent years, its success to date is not all smooth sailing – and against Toyota and Mazda (and Holden, for that matter) the struggle to increase sales and expand market share will be geometrically tougher the further the brand progresses.

To compete with those three brands, Hyundai has had to focus more on a segment (medium passenger) where it has struggled in the past, and it has also entered a new segment for the first time – large cars.

Hyundai's Genesis is nominally a large car in the sub-$70,000 bracket, but with a starting price of $60,000 it is right at the highest echelon of a segment populated by Commodore, Falcon and other, more affordable cars. Understandably, given it's a new nameplate in a very mature market segment, with well established names from trusted brands, the Genesis has not sold in large numbers since its introduction late last year.

In 2015 the Genesis has sold just 158 examples so far. Add to that figure the 163 units sold before the end of 2014 and the total amounts to just over 320 units.

To put that in perspective, that figure is less than half the number of Falcons Ford sold last month alone. Genesis has, however, outsold the Skoda Superb and the Peugeot 508. But all three local large cars (Toyota Aurion and Holden Commodore, as well as the Falcon) are outselling the large, luxurious Hyundai by numbers in the hundreds – or even thousands in the case of the Commodore.

"We're running between 50 and 60 a month on Genesis, which is not target," Thomas admitted. "We're not hitting our incredibly ambitious target with the vehicle – but in some ways it's more than we expected. I know that sounds a bit strange, but that's kind of the way it is."

According to the Hyundai spokesman, the Genesis is straddling that divide between the volume-selling large cars from local manufacturers, and the prestige models primarily from Europe and priced above $70,000.

"The interesting thing about that though is the 44/44/12 mix in sales between the three models – with 44 per cent being the base-grade car, and 44 per cent being the highest Ultimate spec; only 12 opting for the mid-spec [variant]. So it's almost a 50/50 split between paying the least for it, or the maximum."

Placed within the context of its position in the market, the Genesis was only five sales behind Jaguar's XF last month, 19 units ahead of the Maserati Ghibli, and just 15 units behind the Audi A6. The Mercedes E-Class was 43 units in front, and the BMW 5 Series was the name to beat, with 130 sales for March.

"Any car company would always say 'We'd want to sell more'... but at the moment [sales of the Genesis] are pretty solid."