News continues to trickle about the upcoming HYUNDAI flagship. The Genesis concept car confirms that HYUNDAI has set its mind on challenging established Luxury carmakers like MERCEDES, BMW … and LEXUS.
The Korean Concept Car displays
HYUNDAI’s ambitions in Luxury
By choosing “Genesis” as the name of its top-of-range model, HYUNDAI follows the step of TOYOTA, whose “Lexus” had the same imposing and assertive (and somewhat generic) ring.
The FR Layout: Spelling luxury and performance
Beneath the classic proportions of the bodywork, the FR layout of the Korean sedan tells the most about the chaebol’s ambitions.
Front engine (“F”) and Rear Wheels Drive (“R”), has been the dominant design of luxury sedans since the dawning ages of the automotive industry. As a matter of fact, the world’s most successful premium car makers, BMW and MERCEDES-BENZ, never let go of the FR layout while other generalists converted to the more efficient FF Layout (Front Engine and Front Wheels Drive cars are lighter, roomier, easier and cheaper to produce).
In might appears as normal that generalist carmakers now scramble back to the FR layout they had abandoned in the 1980s: GENERAL MOTORS aims at reviving its PONTIAC brand by using an Australian sourced FR platform, while PEUGEOT is rumored to get back to FR after phasing out its dull 607 FF sedan and RENAULT is reportedly interested in using FR platforms sourced from NISSAN.
The HYUNDAI Genesis aims at the top of the market
With its FR layout and compulsory V8 engine, the HYUNDAI Genesis is set to enter the North American market as an alternative to other luxury sedans, giving more bang for the buck than its American counterparts from LINCOLN or BUICK. While MERCEDES and BMW can rely on their badge value to stay on top of the market brand-value wise, the LEXUS story may act as a cautionary tale: German luxury brands will face another competitor in the next decade.
What comes as a second surprise is that the HYUNDAI Group is also considering introducing another luxury sedan on the Genesis platform… a car which will be sold under the KIA badge!
Industry observers first though that after taking over the bankrupt KIA Motors in 1998, the HYUNDAI Group would set its second automotive brand to produce bargain models based on common platforms, an example being the quite dull KIA Magentis, sharing the same platform as the head turning HYUNDAI Sonata.
KIA Magentis and HYUNDAI Sonata
Close cousins. Who said the Magentis was
to play Cinderella?
What first appears as common sense, on close inspection, does not hold: who wants to build low end or entry-level cars nowadays?*
By pushing both product ranges up, the HYUNDAI Group aims at building enough Brand Equity to sell all its products, whichever their badge, at a premium price. TOYOTA and LEXUS, again, can provide an example: By pushing the Camry sedan to quality levels equivalent to what LEXUS achieved in the 1990s, the fresh global leader is set to command comfortable prices for all its models.
Copyright: Alfred LARGANGE – June 2007
* That is, if the Chinese market is not in your crosshairs…
