Dive Brief:
- Hyundai Motor Group sees an opportunity to grow its North America sales by more than 20% to 1.44 million by 2030 by leaning into high-profit, high-demand vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles, according to an investor day presentation Wednesday.
- The company is looking market by market at opportunities and portfolio whitespace as part of its target to boost global sales 35% by 2030 versus 2025 levels. High-profit, high-demand product segments will make up a big portion of the sales gains, the automaker said.
- “Pickups, light commercial vehicles and large SUVs are the biggest gaps in the markets that pay the best,” Hyundai Motor Co. CEO Jose Muñoz told investors. “We are simply taking what we already build to places where we currently do not sell.”
Dive Insight:
New or refreshed products will play a big role in filling the “whitespace” Hyundai sees in the market, according to Muñoz.
He pointed to the Alabama-made, three-row Santa Fe EREV coming in early 2027 as one example. Hyundai is promising a range of more than 600 miles from a two-motor system and high-performance battery, plus an “EV-like driving experience.” A Genesis extended range EV is also on the way in early 2027, the company noted in a corresponding press release.
“For a customer who wants the EV experience without changing how they refuel, we now have an answer, and it’s made in America,” said Muñoz.
Another group of these whitespace opportunities positioned for U.S. market growth are off-road flavored.
“You have seen where we are going with Boulder, with Ioniq Earth and with Crater,” said Muñoz. “Concepts are easy; what makes this different is that the body-on-frame architecture behind them is funded and in development.”
According to Hyundai, the company has calculated that there are 26 million units a year in segments for which it has little or no coverage — like for those trucks.
“We made the analysis in terms of the product, and we've seen that close to 30% of the market, we were not competing and that market is highly profitable,” said Muñoz later in the program’s Q&A. “The luxury market, the body-on-frame market, the high-performance market, they're all high-profit markets already for us.”
Hyundai noted that it will make a continued shift toward a localized product portfolio and supply chain, with a rise in production capacity to 1.27 million globally, including 500,000 in North America. Between 2026 and 2030, Hyundai plans to launch 36 “new or enhanced models” in North America, while Genesis will launch 22 new models in the market.
That fits right in with the shift to hybrids. Hyundai also revealed plans to scale its hybrid technology by then. It’s gone from just 8% hybrid sales in its North American lineup to a projected 25% in 2026. By 2030, Hyundai says that it will have more than 10 hybrid models for North America, built both in Alabama and at its Georgia Metaplant, with hybrids making up half of what it sells in the region.
