`Korean carmakers are potential future partners, not enemies`

`Korean carmakers are potential future partners, not enemies`. October. 04, 2012 00:43. taylor55@donga.com.

Leading French weekly Rex Press recommended Tuesday that France, which demands safeguards or emergency import restrictions against Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, consider Korean carmakers as potential future partners and cooperate rather than as enemies.

Rex Press said in a news analysis that what France has singled as new foes who will eat into the market share of its own auto brands is not Volkswagen, which remains strong, Ford, which has been successfully revived, or Toyota, but Hyundai and Kia, which control just 3 percent of the French auto market. The success of the two Korean companies is due to design and the variety of models as well as competitive prices, it added.

The weekly said Hyundai saw sales jump 38 percent in the first eight months of this year, but represents compensation for its struggle over the past four years and recovery of its market share to the 2004 level (1.4 percent). As such, Hyundai’s growth is hardly outrageous, Rex Press said, if compared with Dacia Motor of Romania, which has seen its market share grow from zero to 4.4 percent over the past eight years.