Hyundai has spent the last three years in reverse, but with a new leader in place there is a plan to get the brand headed in the right direction again. But unlike other brands that rely on new models to drive interest, Hyundai’s Australia’s new CEO, Don Romano, wants to do things differently.
The South Korean brand peaked as the third most-popular car maker in 2021, but has dropped down the order since then, finishing in sixth place last year. This includes falling behind its sister-brand, Kia, as well as Mitsubishi, Mazda and Ford. In 2024 Hyundai sold 71,664 cars, which is well short of its record total from 2015 or 102,004. However, since then the Australian market has become significantly more competitive with an influx of new brands, especially from China.
While there is the newly launched Inster and new-look Palisade coming, Romano believes the key for Hyundai to climb back up the sales charts is by forging a better relationship with its 165 dealers. Crucially, with so many dealers offering multiple brands, Romano wants to make sure they prioritise pushing Hyundai models to potential customers.
“ Well, we’re bringing out new products, right?,” Romano told Torquecafe. “There’s gonna be a few more… But the real goal that I have is to regain the confidence of our dealers and make sure that Hyundai becomes top of mind. This was a strategy we put together in Canada, when Canada had the same exact scenario where our sales had declined we had lost the confidence of the dealer body. And I think that’s first and foremost, that dealers right now have 70 different brands out there that they’re juggling. And where does Hyundai stand in that line-up, making that one of their top priorities? That’s exactly like my goal has always been to look at who’s number one and see how they interact with their dealer body as one team, and that’s absolutely my goal is to work closer with the dealers than before.”
Romano has only been in Australia eight weeks but has already toured around the country meeting dealers and getting feedback. He explained that while prices are also an issue, the key problem for dealers is the amount of policies and red tape Hyundai has put in place.
“You could look at our warranty policies, how easy is it to do business with us?” he said. “But they control, ultimately, how well and efficient we are at the retail end. And I’m not so sure that we’ve put enough focus on that in the past.”
Romano said his goal is to make Hyundai a desirable and appealing brand, to pull customers into showrooms and then make it easier for dealers to sell. Rather than the current strategy that sees dealers have sales targets that leads to them pushing cars out with discounts and other incentives.
“So, there’s a change we can make with respect to how we work with our dealers, and then also to give them confidence in the product plans coming forward, because they’re the ones investing in those buildings and in the people and in the front lines. So, yeah, that’s my strategy in a nutshell.”
As of the end of April, Hyundai was sitting fifth on the sales charts, approximately 2200 sales behind Kia and less than 5000 behind Mazda.
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