Success (greater than) expected Hyundai HB20 is already the fourth best-selling model in Brazil until May. The assembler, which should soon start the third shift at the plant in Piracicaba, says it is close to the limit of productive capacity and states that the goal is to become the number one company in customer’s satisfaction.
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ecently, Hyundai Motor Brasil (HMB) announced the start of the third shift at the plant in Piracicaba where, since November last year, it runs the production line of the Korean-origin assembler. The company does not disclose the total number of increase in productive capacity (maintains the unit launching estimates, which were about 150,000 vehicles per year), but one thing is certain: the HB20 family will continue invading the streets of Brazil. Just to get an idea of the assembler good moment, according to Fenabrave (National Federation of Automotive Vehicles Distribution) data, between January and May this year, 53,430 HB20 hatchback vehicles were plate licensed in the Country. This puts it as the fourth most sold vehicle in the domestic market, behind only of the leader Volkswagen Gold and of Fiat models: Uno and Fiat Palio.
These numbers become even more impressive when one notes that Hyundai is already ahead of Renault in sales of new cars and light commercials in the year and that, if we excluded from the calculation the numbers of direct sales and counted only retail data, the Korean hatchback would take Uno third position and would be less than 3,000 units of the second placed Palio. “Success has been even greater than we expected,” says Cassio Pagliarini, Hyundai Marketing Officer, which recognizes that the good impression left in the past 10 years, for imported vehicles and upper segments as Azera, Tucson and i30, has contributed for the good moment of the company. “Undoubtedly, we went on profiting from the image that sophisticated models left us,” assesses, noting, however, that the very HB20 is offered with a
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