Hyundai-Kia aims to sell 8.4m vehicles in 2015

Hyundai Motor Group is expected to raise its global sales target to 8.4 million vehicles in 2015 worldwide despite worries about a weaker Japanese yen and slowing sales in emerging markets.

According to company officials on Thursday, chairman Chung Mong-koo will announce the new sales target on Jan. 2 during a speech at the group’s New Year ceremony in Seoul.

“Our sales and marketing divisions have already started drawing up next year’s plans under the increased sales goal,” said a company official declining to be named.

“In Korea alone, we aim to sell 1.14 million vehicles, including 660,000 for Hyundai and 480,000 for Kia.”

Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors sold a combined 7.24 million vehicles as of November, up 4.8 percent from a year ago. The Korean automotive duo recently said they were set to hit a record 8 million mark at the end of this month.

The 2015 sales target reflects a 5 percent growth from this year. The figure also outpaces an estimated 4 percent growth of overall global car sales next year.

The Hyundai-affiliated Korea Automotive Research Institute predicted that automotive sales in the global market would grow about 3.9 percent to about 87.1 million vehicles next year.

“In the past, a weaker yen took a toll on Hyundai and Kia. But the situation has changed as the two carmakers have secured their own competitiveness,” said Park Hong-jae, head of the institute.

“Considering Toyota’s tendency to seek stability on a falling yen, Hyundai-Kia needs to pour resources more aggressively into emerging markets next year,” he said, adding that the yen-dollar exchange rate could fall to around 120 yen to a dollar by 2018.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)