Hyundai keeps chugging along and now plans expansion of it’s factory capacity in the U.S. It’s really no surprise that Hyundai will be looking to either expand or build more assembly plants in North America in the near future as sales for the Korean company continue to grow. Last month (July 2010) Hyundai’s U.S. sales set a record with 54,106 units sold which is a 19 percent increase from a year ago.

The U.S. car market is steadily fighting back and if and when things really get going Hyundai is preparing to be an even bigger player.

From Auto News.com:

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Hyundai Motor Co. needs more factory output in the United States and will announce plans to expand production within the next month or so, John Krafcik, CEO of Hyundai Motor America, said today.

The automaker’s plant in Alabama, which makes the Sonata sedan and Santa Fe crossover, is running at maximum overtime right now and still struggling to meet sales demands, Krafcik said at the CAR Management Briefing Seminars here.

He declined to say what shape the new U.S. production would take, but said, “We know we have to grow U.S. production.”

Read the full article here.

News flash! Another dumb idea from GM! The brain trust at GM have apparently decided against selling the all new Chevy Orlando in the U.S. because they want to focus on “other” Chevy products??? OK, So GM is calling this new stylish and sensible vehicle a “minivan” and guess what? 1.) GM/Chevy have no minivan for sale in the U.S. 2.) GM/Chevy have no other vehicle with 3 rows that compares to the Orlando 3.) With gas prices likely to rise soon the Orlando (which is off the same platform as the Volt and Cruze will get close to 35mpg on the highway) would be a home run in the U.S.

Oh well, I guess GM/Chevy are happy with losing market share to other companies like Ford and Hyundai so keep one of the better new products to come out of their stable in awhile and sell it basically everywhere but the U.S.

From AutoGuide.com:

The Chevrolet Orlando crossover will not be sold in the United States after all. In an interview with Bloomberg, Margaret Brooks, GM’s product marketing director for small cars and crossovers said that “The best thing to do for Chevrolet is to focus on the brands we’ve already brought to market: the Traverse, Equinox, Malibu and, soon to come, the Cruze.”

Read the full article here.

This is not a misprint. Hyundai to bring luxury vehicle to challenge BMW, Mercedes and Lexus. That’s right, the Hyundai Equus is on it’s way to the U.S. with all of the goodies inside and out to take on the big boys. Will the Equus be a hit in the mid 50k range? We’ll know soon enough.

From AutoGuide.com:

It certainly looks like a flagship luxury sedan, created to rival established German saloons like the 7 Series and S Class, but it costs roughly half the price and… it’s a Hyundai? Yes, debuting at the New York Auto Show, Hyundai will now offer its flagship luxury sedan from Korea in the U.S. aiming to, “compete with the best luxury sedans in the world on all levels.”

Pricing for the Equus has yet to be locked-down, but Hyundai says it expects to be able to sell the car in the mid $50,000 range. And while the Equus isn’t likely to win over many buyers from Mercedes, the package is an attractive one for Lexus LS shoppers, with the LS460 riced in the mid $60,000 range.

The Equus more than just looks like a proper luxury barge, using a powerful V8 engine and riding on a proper rear-drive architecture (an elongated version of that used for the Genesis Sedan). The Equus is actually 7.2-inches longer than the Genesis at 203.1-inches. That makes it longer than the extended wheelbase Lexus LS, plus it’s wider than either the S-Class or 7 Series.

Read the full article here.

The Big H is already on a roll but if they build anything similar to this prototype i-Flow/Sonata being shown in Geneva look out because they could be steamrollin’. Some of Hyundai’s cars already resemble a Lexus and at a portion of the cost so they have sent out warning shots to the competition on what lies ahead.

Hyundai unveiled its i-Flow concept vehicle, calling it a preview for a future D-Segment contender. According to Hyundai, we may see the i-Flow’s styling and technology in a 2011 production model. Would it be too much to expect it in the 2011 Euro-spec Sonata?

The seventh of a series of concepts from the Russelsheim design studio, the i-Flow extends upon Hyundai’s “fluidic sculpture” philosophy. The outside offers a futuristic look while inside, the i-Flow has an alien, Hyundai calls it “bionic”, feel.

Under the futuristic shell, the i-Flow is Hyundai’s first diesel hybrid powertrain. At the i-Flow’s heart is the U2 1.7L two-stage turbo engine combined with a lithium-ion powered motor. No horsepower or torque figures were provided, but Hyundai says the i-Flow gets 78.4 mpg.

Read the full article here.

Hyundai really steps it up with the new 2010 Sante Fe that will reportedly bring in 20/28 mpg, for front drive automatic models with the four-banger.

From AutoGuide.com:

Hyundai continues to deliver significantly improved vehicles, the latest being the 2010 Santa Fe mid-sized crossover, which is set to launch at the Detroit Auto Show. Mid-cycle refreshes rarely get the sort of overhaul that the 2010 Santa Fe has received, with minor interior and exterior updates being joined by two new engines, both of which are more fuel efficient than the engines they replace.

For 2010 the entry level 2.7-liter 4-cylinder has been replaced with Hyundai’s new Theta II 2.4-liter, which delivers 175-hp and 169 ft-lbs of torque – the same as in the new 2011 Tucson. This is less power than the old V6, but a new six-speed automatic transmission and the lighter weight of the 4-cylinder should put the crossover’s acceleration at about the same range. Fuel economy is up significantly (aided by the new six-speed transmission) from 18/24 mpg (city/highway) to 20/28 mpg, for front drive automatic models.

Read the full article here.

We all know that Hyundai has been on a tear with quality products priced to sell. Now the 2011 Sonata that was shown at the LA Auto Show could accelerate their climb up the sales charts. What are your thoughts from what you’ll read and see in the gallery from the link below?

From Car and Driver.com:

Think what you will about the ever-expanding “four-door coupe” theme—now applied to everything from luxury SUVs to mainstream sedans—but you just can’t help but be seized by the design of the new 2011 Hyundai Sonata debuting at the L.A. auto show. (Even if there appears to be plenty of Volkswagen CC and even a bit of Toyota Camry Solara to its looks.) Styled in the company’s California studio, the Sonata is strikingly swoopy and all creased up with Hyundai’s new design language called “Fluidic Sculpture,” which we’re told we’ll be seeing a lot more of in the future.

Read the entire article and check out the gallery here.

Here comes Hyundai!

Reports state that the hard charging Korean car maker is going to build their 3rd North American assembly plant in Mexico with production beginning in 2013. It’s amazing how fast Hyundai is growing in NA with all the stiff competition they face….Can they keep up the growth on their own? Time will tell.

According to Edmunds, the government agency Promexico has confirmed that negotiations with Hyundai are well underway. The new factory will likely be built in the Mexican state of Veracruz – which, coincidentally, is the same name as the company’s luxury crossover.

The new plant would build the Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio, boosting the Korean automaker’s North American output by 150,000 units. Construction could begin as soon as 2012, with the plant expected to be up and running by 2013.

Hyundai has begun a major marketing push in the United States with increased sales and the weakening Korean won.

U.S. car sales plunged to a 27-year low in January, dragging down Detroit’s Shrunken Three and even mighty Toyota Motor (TM). But one automaker has bucked the trend: Hyundai Motor. The Korean company, whose name was once synonymous with cheap, logged a 14% sales gain in what was a dismal month for almost every other carmaker.

It’s too soon to say whether that marks the start of a trend that could see Hyundai emerge from the shadow of its larger Japanese rivals, Toyota and Honda Motor (HMC). For one thing, the jump owes much to Hyundai’s 22% drop in sales in January 2008. And the company has piled on the discounts. Incentives on its Sonata sedan, Santa Fe SUV, and other models average $2,611 per vehicle—about triple those of a year ago. Faced with bloated inventory at its single U.S. factory in Montgomery, Ala., Hyundai has scaled back production there and is unloading cars on rental-car agencies: Nearly 30% of the 24,500 vehicles it sold in January went to such fleet buyers at virtually no profit.

Hyundai can afford to sell its cars on the cheap, at least for a while. Its balance sheet is far healthier than those of its Detroit peers. And it’s getting a big lift from the weak won. The Korean currency has dropped by nearly a third against the dollar in the past year, so Hyundai pockets more cash from each car it sells in the U.S. Toyota and Honda, on the other hand, are seeing their earnings wiped out by a yen that is hovering at a 13-year high. Brokerage Korea Investment & Securities figures more than half of Hyundai’s projected $1.5 billion profit in 2009 will come from the favorable exchange rate. “The currency swing has been a godsend for Hyundai,” says Park Kyung Min, chief executive of Seoul fund manager Hangaram Investment Management.

As the other auto companies have reigned in advertising, Hyundai is devoting ore resources to marketing, evn buying ads during the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards.