BMW sees no threat in luxury market
By Park Si-soo
Hyundai Motor Group won’t pose any immediate threat to BMW in the premium car market, said BMW Group’s senior vice president for the Asia-Pacific region.
He portrayed the German carmaker as luxury pen brand Montblanc, while the Hyundai and Kia duo were a “masstige” brand such as Parker.
These comments came at a time when Hyundai has made a huge investment for years to make premium cars for the American and European markets, where the firm has been aggressively promoting its luxury EQUUS and Genesis sedans.
“Hyundai’s design has become really good and quality has become good as well. I believe Hyundai and Kia are serious challengers to Japanese brands. I believe Honda, Nissan and maybe Toyota have lost market shares to Hyundai and Kia in Europe very quickly,”said Hendrik von Kuenheim, BMW Group’s senior vice president of the Asia-Pacific region and South Africa in a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. “But there is no competition with BMW because we are just operating in totally different environment, totally different segment. If BMW is Montblanc, Hyundai is Parker.”
Kuenheim said it would not be easy for Hyundai to build up its brand power to the level of BMW. “BMW has a 97-year history and in that time we have built the ultimate driving machine,” he said. “It takes a long time to build a brand. In this regard, though Hyundai and Kia are successful, there is no competition with BMW.”
Kuenheim is the son of Eberhard von Kuenheim, who was CEO of BMW from 1970 to 1993. The 53-year-old with a background in hotel management said the firm aims to sell 27,000 vehicles in Korea by the end of this year, up from 23,000 in 2011.
“Korea still has a big potential for growth particularly in the premium luxury car market,” he said. “Some say the market has matured. But I believe more foreign vehicles will be imported as the country is quickly moving into the era of free trade.”
He touted the group for achieving its “best-ever” August sales this year, saying a total of 121,615 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand automobiles were sold worldwide in August, up 9.7 percent from a year ago. He added despite the prolonged economic downturn, the automaker has delivered 1,157,777 vehicles worldwide for the first eight months, an increase of 7.9 percent compared with the first eight months of the previous year.
“We expect further gains in the coming months and we are absolutely on track on achieving a new sales record in 2012,” Kuenheim said. “We are confident to continue our success because we have strong brands, attractive products and services.”
Prior to the press conference, he donated 17 research-purpose cars to universities and high schools in a corporate social responsibility activity. Since 2001, nearly 50 BMW cars have been donated to domestic schools.
“The industry-university cooperation program is a win-win situation for both of us since we provide state-of-the-art technology and know-how to students, and in return we can count on the most competitive talented associates from an early stage,” he said.