Hyundai Motor Spain shot up its turnover by 21.4% in 2022, up to 1,131 million euros, and ranked as the third car brand in Spain by units sold.
The South Korean brand – which has had fewer microchip supply problems throughout the year than its competitors – had a 7.32% market share, its best ever figure.
The Hyundai Motor Company group, owner of Huyndai and which also integrates the Kia brand, was the third world car manufacturer last year, behind the Volkswagen group and Toyota.
"It's a record year," said the general director of the brand in Spain, Leopoldo Satrústegui, on Wednesday at the presentation of results in Madrid.
Last year, Seat lost its crown as the best-selling car brand in Spain.
The 2022 podium went to three Asian companies: the Japanese Toyota led the ranking with 73,505 models sold, followed by the Korean firms of the Hyundai Motor Company group: Kia and Hyundai, with 63,345 and 59,503 units respectively.
In fact, the most sold car last year was the Hyundai Tucson, with 21,985 units, ahead of Dacia Sandero and Seat Arona.
It is the first time that a car from an Asian brand is the best seller in Spain.
Satrústegui has celebrated this milestone and has highlighted that it has been achieved by placing a model "ahead of other cheaper segments".
The automotive sector has been particularly affected by the lack of semiconductors in the last two years.
However, Hyundai has been able to weather the storm.
Although the market falls by 5.4%, the brand has managed to increase its sales by 3.5%.
"Hyundai has always moved well in times of crisis," said Satrústegui, who highlighted how, since the pandemic, its quota improved significantly: "We knew how to manage the microchip crisis better than others."
Hyundai went from representing 5.3% of the Spanish automobile market in 2020, to 6.7% in 2021.
Electrification
In the presentation of results, the general director of Hyundai in Spain wanted to send a message to the Government to improve the measures to help the sale of electric vehicles: "We are very far from the objectives," he warned.
Satrústegui has defended that the Moves plan has to be improved, and that its delegation to the autonomous communities does not work.
In addition, the director of Hyundai Spain has requested that the aid can be deducted from personal income tax, as is the case in Portugal;
or that the subsidies are higher, as in Germany.
For Satrústegui, the great obstacle to the electrification of the mobile park in Spain is the lack of charging infrastructure.
“We are at 17,000, 18,000 chargers.
The forecast of 45,000 at the end of 2022 has not been met ”, he pointed out.
The director of the South Korean car brand has pointed out the difficulty of selling electric cars when the customer has doubts about whether he will be able to charge it.
As in units sold, Hyundai is the third in sales of electrified models.
According to the data exposed by the company, and including hybrids, up to 50% of its sales are electrified.
In electricity, Satrústegui pointed out, production problems have been more decisive this year.
The company plans to produce 1.87 million 100% electric vehicles by the end of this decade, for which it has designed an investment plan endowed with 15,000 million euros between 2022 and 2030.
forecasts
For this year, the brand expects to maintain a market share similar to that achieved in 2022, although somewhat less.
The reason, its general director has pointed out, is that market forecasts point to an increase of more than 90% in rental vehicles, a segment in which Hyundai is not very present and which has suffered from a lack of vehicles in recent months.
Satrústegui has defended that these projected figures for the market are too optimistic, although he has pointed out that "there is still more demand than supply" in the market.
“We had considered a 6.5% market share in Spain for 2022 because we thought that the data for 2021 (6.7% share) would be exceptional because we had had a greater offer of vehicles than other brands.
We like to be conservative in our forecasts”, Satrústegui has assessed.
All in all, the South Korean brand expects a revenue increase of between 6% and 7% by 2023.