Business

Thursday July 23, 2009

Hyundai Sime Darby aims to sell 160 units of new hatchback in 2 months


PETALING JAYA: Hyundai Sime Darby Motors Sdn Bhd is targeting to sell 160 units of its newly launched Hyundai i30 in the next two months, according to head of marketing Kelvin Chuah.

“Traditionally, the preference is for sedan and the hatchback is not popular in Malaysia, but this trend is changing.

“The i30 is quite stylish and sexy. We hope with these features, sales of this hatchback will be good,“ he told reporters after launching the Hyundai i30 yesterday.

Depending on the response, the company would bring in more completely-built-up units of the Hyundai i30 in future, he added.

Hyundai-Sime Darby Motors Sdn Bhd managing director Dennis Ho and Hyundai Motor Company senior vice president, Asia Pacific Division , Global Business DIvision Y K Chun at the launch yesterday.

Chuah said that under the Hyundai Assurance Program, which was also launched yesterday, owners would be able to return a new Hyundai within a year if they lost their jobs and the automaker would pay up to three months of car payments before taking the car back so that owners would have time to look for a new job.

“The success of the programme in the US made us consider adopting it here so that people can be assured when making a car purchase especially in this current market scenario,” he said.

He said that there was a 2%-3% growth in car sales when Hyundai launched the programme in the US.

He said while the rest of the auto industry was expecting a slump in local car sales this year, Hyundai was expecting to maintain its momentum.

“We have sold 4,000 cars so far this year and expect to hit 7,000 by year-end,” he said.

“With the recession, maintaining that momentum would be a commendable effort,” he said, adding that the growth would be backed by its promotional programmes.

Available from next month, the 1.6-litre Hyundai i30 is priced on-the-road at RM92,388 for themanual version and RM97,888 for the automatic transmission.

The 2.0 automatic version is priced at RM112,888.

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