Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News for more on the
Speaker 1: Auto Outlook and the EV Outlook. I'm please to say
Speaker 1: we're joined now by Hyundai North American CEO and Global
Speaker 1: COO Jose Munez, as well as Bloomberg's owned Matt Miller,
Speaker 1: our resident car guy. Let's kick off this conversation with
Speaker 1: what's going on at your Georgia plant. Bloomberg reported in
Speaker 1: April that Hyundai is going to spend more at that
Speaker 1: plan to produce more hybrid vehicles. Are you still betting
Speaker 1: that it's going to be the full battery evs that
Speaker 1: are going to dominate?
Speaker 2: Well, good afternoon, Thank you for having me. It's good
Speaker 2: to see you, Matt. Well, we are still very confident,
Speaker 2: and I was visiting our plant in Savannah last week
Speaker 2: and I'm happy to report that we'll be able to
Speaker 2: produce three months ahead of a schedule. So by October
Speaker 2: this year we will start producing our very popular Ionique five.
Speaker 2: So I think that's that's great. We're very cold. And then,
Speaker 2: as I've said many times, we continue to double down
Speaker 2: on our bed for electrification and we're happy to continue
Speaker 2: with that. So your question about the hybrid we've also
Speaker 2: seen that the evolution of EV sales in the industry
Speaker 2: maybe not as fast as everybody expected or as the
Speaker 2: regulation would expect. And then we have seen also that
Speaker 2: a number of consumers are betting for maybe alternative fuel
Speaker 2: types beyond ice, like hybrids and planking hybrids. And that's
Speaker 2: why we have decided that in our plant in Savannah,
Speaker 2: we're going to produce also hybrid vehicles. This is going
Speaker 2: to imply, of course, an increase on investment, but we
Speaker 2: believe is needed and we are very happy to see
Speaker 2: the reaction of our dealers and our stakeholders as we
Speaker 2: have announced.
Speaker 3: That is the Ionic five. By the way, great to
Speaker 3: see you as well, Hose. The Ionic five n hit
Speaker 3: the market, wowing a lot of people with the sort
Speaker 3: of ic emulation and sporty performance. Is that thing sold
Speaker 3: out already? I mean, what are the orders looking like
Speaker 3: for that? Well?
Speaker 2: I only five and is unbelievable. I think the few
Speaker 2: you noticed, like you Matt, know really what this car
Speaker 2: can do. It's more than six hundred and forty horsepower.
Speaker 2: He just made it to the performance card of the
Speaker 2: Year in the World Car event that took place in
Speaker 2: New York in April and this is only after two
Speaker 2: years earlier the Ionique five became work out of the Year,
Speaker 2: Evy kind of the year and designed Ify kind of
Speaker 2: the year. I think this is one of the few
Speaker 2: cars that could raise you in one of your motorcycles
Speaker 2: and bid you. But then I'll leave it to an
Speaker 2: opportunity in the future.
Speaker 3: I look forward to it. Ose listen, the price tag
Speaker 3: continues to get higher as these cars gained popularity with consumers. Obviously,
Speaker 3: the I has done well. This one costs I think
Speaker 3: north of sixty five thousand dollars and the Genesis product
Speaker 3: is doing so well that you're able to take more
Speaker 3: price there. Do you see that power increasing even as
Speaker 3: it's falling for your competitors.
Speaker 2: Well, we really do see the power increasing. So we
Speaker 2: really believe that the future is going to be electric.
Speaker 2: So it's not a matter of if, but when is.
Speaker 2: You go to Europe, I think there is about a
Speaker 2: twenty percent mix of ebs. You go to other regions
Speaker 2: like China is about thirty percent. We are stable in
Speaker 2: the United States about eight percent. But in our case,
Speaker 2: we continue to do very well this year. Today we
Speaker 2: have increased our sales of vs by more than fifty percent,
Speaker 2: and last year we doubled our sales of FBS, So
Speaker 2: if anything, those vehicles are helping our company to position
Speaker 2: themselves in a better place. So in fact, in the
Speaker 2: United States as a group, we are number three on
Speaker 2: retail sales, but on eb sales we're number two, only
Speaker 2: behind Tesla, So we are confident. But to your point
Speaker 2: about affordability, what we have seen is that if you
Speaker 2: compare the prices two years ago, the prices have gone
Speaker 2: down about fifteen thousand dollars in average, but some more ems,
Speaker 2: including us or in our case, taking the lead, we're
Speaker 2: bringing new high performance versions that the consumers like. I
Speaker 2: think we're working also on trying to bring the prices
Speaker 2: down so that it is not only a matter of
Speaker 2: performance but also affordability and convenience plus chatting infrastructure, et cetera.
Speaker 2: But that's what we are, that's what we want to do.
Speaker 1: And Hose, I want to talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about your Genesis brand and full disclosure. Actually drive a Genesis,
Speaker 1: But even outside of myself, I'm seeing more and more
Speaker 1: of them on the road, on the highways, and I'm curious,
Speaker 1: who are you positioned to be taking share from? Are
Speaker 1: you going up against Mercedes BMW's for example.
Speaker 2: Well, first and foremost, I agree with you, So I
Speaker 2: think we've we've done quite well. And in the last
Speaker 2: the nineges that we've been in the market with more
Speaker 2: than increase of volume eight x right, and then we
Speaker 2: continue to grow. We are outpacing the market. In the
Speaker 2: market on luxury is about flat. We're growing more than
Speaker 2: three percent, driven by our subs, mainly so the GB eighty,
Speaker 2: the GV seventy that we produce in the United States,
Speaker 2: including and IV, they're the ones that are doing the
Speaker 2: best job for us. But also you know the set
Speaker 2: ads that we bring to the market. So we're very pleased.
Speaker 2: And in fact, we have started now to have exclusive
Speaker 2: dealers to the about thirty five so far and we
Speaker 2: want to take this number to about one hundred hopefully
Speaker 2: in about one year or so. And as we increase
Speaker 2: the number of exclusive dealers and we continue to bring
Speaker 2: new products like right now we're about to launch the
Speaker 2: GV eighty a coup we see the sales growing strongly,
Speaker 2: the dealers making good profits step by step, and we're
Speaker 2: creating the brand. So our main competitors are not three
Speaker 2: competitors and then in the EB field, of course you
Speaker 2: have Tesla, but in the other technologies the German three
Speaker 2: so SIDS, BMW and ADI are our reference. So we
Speaker 2: are still behind, but we're working hard. And then the
Speaker 2: way we made it today, I think it's being faster
Speaker 2: than most of our competitors before.
Speaker 3: I talked to some Bloomberg Intelligence analysts who say, part
Speaker 3: of the key to your success is your strong relationship
Speaker 3: with the dealer network. I have a lot of dealer
Speaker 3: friends who are angry at you know, domestic automakers when
Speaker 3: they talk about ad ms and talk about selling directly
Speaker 3: to consumers, but dealers are all happy to sell Hyundai's
Speaker 3: Ki as Genesis. How do you keep that relationship strong
Speaker 3: even in the bad times.
Speaker 2: Well, that's really a key success factor. You said it
Speaker 2: better is so we praise our dealers and particularly the
Speaker 2: members of the Dealer Advisory Board on both Genesis and Hyundai,
Speaker 2: because they've been with the brand for many years now
Speaker 2: and they've seen the evolution of the brand, and at
Speaker 2: this moment, they're very supportive of the strategy that our
Speaker 2: executive chair Mister Chung is established for the global operations.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that we do is that
Speaker 2: we meet on a regular basis in person and then
Speaker 2: we genuinely listen with good intention. And I can tell
Speaker 2: you that because the results have been better, because we
Speaker 2: were able to implement the strategies that the dealers gave
Speaker 2: us good ideas about it, et cetera, the dealers are
Speaker 2: happier than ever before. They're making more money and they
Speaker 2: are investing. So ultimately, the chairman of the Genesis Retailer
Speaker 2: Advisory Board, Kevin Riley from a DC, he told me recently,
Speaker 2: you know, is not a matter of the different surveys
Speaker 2: of what they can tell you. When you see the
Speaker 2: dealers are putting their money in your brand, investing in
Speaker 2: facilities which are exclusive, this is when you know you're
Speaker 2: doing something right. And then I could say the same
Speaker 2: thing with Andy Wright, who is the chairman of the
Speaker 2: advisory board for Hyundai, which is also one of our
Speaker 2: best performing dealers investing, et cetera, et cetera. We continue
Speaker 2: to have a dialogue listening to them and trying to
Speaker 2: work together as a team.
Speaker 1: All right, Jose, Unfortunately we have to leave it there.
Speaker 1: I hope to speak to you again soon. Our thanks,
Speaker 1: of course to Hyundai North America CEO and Global COO
Speaker 1: Jose Munez, and of course, our own Bloomberg's car guy
Speaker 1: Matt Miller,