Genesis and Equus sedan sales

[YEH]

In recent years Hyundai has gone a long way in improving the way consumers look at its brand, and they have now taken that a step further by trying to show off a premium brand image.

That tactic seems to be working very nicely with their luxury sedans Genesis and Equus crossing the 100,000 units sold in the overseas market this year.

Industry sources showed that the Genesis and Equus sold 88,771 and 10,508 units respectively in the period from January to June in 2012.

The biggest part of Hyundai’s success has come from being able to deliver high quality, fuel efficient vehicles at affordable prices.

Not content with just that, Hyundai then decided to launch the Genesis and Equus into the luxury market in hopes of challenging the likes of BMW and Mercedes. With the release of these overseas sales figures, it’s fair to say the challenge has been successful.

The Hyundai Genesis was released to the international market in 2008 and flew out the gate, selling 16,490 in its first year of availability. The numbers took a hit when the worldwide economy crumbled, with only 12,854 units shipped overseas in ’09.

Hyundai refused to quit and were rewarded when sales climbed to 22,222 and 23,256 in the years after the global financial crisis. This year those numbers are expected to top 30,000 for the first time ever.

The Equus was first released in 2010 after the worst of the financial crisis was over, and it has never looked back from day one. A total of 2,124 units were shipped overseas in that first year, followed by 4,662 in 2011, and a staggering 3,354 in the first half of this year alone.

The sales success of the Genesis and Equus is also starting to show in the US luxury car market, with monthly sales hitting 2,000 and 300 units, respectively. That growth led to Hyundai delivering 5,000 premium sedans in May, which is a first stateside.

May 2012 was something of a banner month for Hyundai as they delivered 67,019 vehicles in the US market alone. Of that number, 7.9% were luxury sedans, which is a more than 5% increase over the same period last year.

The Genesis and Genesis Coupe combined for over 3,800 units, with Grandeur and Equus accounting for a further 1,053 and 351 units, respectively. The large number of higher-priced vehicles equates to a much healthier bottom line for the Korean automaker.

The numbers speak for themselves with Hyundai posting over $37 billion in sales and $4.1 billion in operating profit. That translates to an operating profit to sales ratio of 11.4%, which is a record high for Hyundai.

http://www.hyundai-blog.com/hyundai-sheds-cheap-car-brand-image


This article is a bit confusing, sometimes using the term "luxury sedan" while including sales of the Genesis coupe (which isn't a luxury sedan, much less a luxury model - at least not yet) and other times using nos. which reflect only Genesis sedan (or Equus) sales.

Anyway, taking 50% of total US Genesis sales as sales of the sedan, sales of the Genesis and Equus sedans are not that far off the pace of the Lexus GS and LS, even w/ the GS being an all new model while the Genesis is heading towards the end of its model cycle w/ a new model arriving in about a year.

Even more eye-opening are the corresponding sales figures for Genesis/Equus and GS/LS sedan sales in Canada.

Even w/o available AWD (which make up 40-50% of sales of RWD-biased luxury sedans), the Genesis and Equus are not only outselling the GS and LS, but by a good margin.

YTD, the Genesis sedan has done 2,085 units while the new GS has only done 597 units and the Equus has sold 73 units compared to 50 for the LS.

Toyota has really got to be worried as sales of the GS and LS have dropped precipitously since their heyday during 2006-2007.

Lexus used to sell multiples of its higher end sedans than what Audi did just a few years ago, but now Audi has pushed ahead of Lexus, while BMW and MB continue to chug along.

One big reason for the drastic decline in Lexus higher end luxury sedan sales is that a big part of Lexus' sales drive was the "value" aspect compared to BMW and MB.

Audi, generally being lower priced than its German counterparts, has chipped away at that w/ its rejuvenated A6 and A8 lineup, as well as the addition of the sleek A7.

Hyundai has further chipped away w/ the Genesis and Equus sedans - when a big part of of the sales equation is value (it's not a good thing when a new competitor enters the ring and outdoes the reigning value sales leader in the value arena), and should do so even more w/ the next gen Genesis and Equus w/ their improved interiors, ride (hopefully), handling and the all impt. addition of available AWD.

Things will only get worse for Toyota as GM enters the fray w/ the ATS (which has gotten glowing reviews) and later w/ the larger and more luxurious CTS next year w/ an Omega flagship to follow in a couple of years, as well as Hyundai's new compact RWD sedan and Kia w/ the K9 and presumably, the GT.

This increasing competition is a big reason why Lexus decided to opt for the polarizing "predator" grill treatment - as means of injecting some excitement into its lineup, but I'm not sure if that was the best way of doing things.

Sales of the new GS have been dropping since its monthly high back in March (2,500) to 1,600 in July and the sales of the 4G GS are well of the pace of sales of the 3G GS in its 1st year of sale.

Lexus does have the exciting LF-LC heading to production but it's a niche model due to it be a higher priced coupe.

While sales of its higher end sedans have been declining, sales of the RX and ES remains strong - which is probably why Toyota is looking to make up for lost sales w/ a new compact Lexus CUV based on the RAV-4 and a full sized, 3-row CUV to take on the Infiniti JX (Toyota may very well do what Hyundai did w/ the new Santa Fe and opt for a RWB and LWB versions of the next gen RX).

 

[sandy]

YEH - am I reading this rignt? Only 50 LS sold in the US YTD (which I assume is Jan-June)? That seems incredibly low.

Enjoyed your analysis

 

[OneFunGenesis]

^^ Those numbers are for Canada...Americas hat

 

[Glashub]

Lexus USA has reported total sales of 17,551 for April 2012, which is up 12.3% compared to last year — as always, here are the model-by-model stats:

http://lexusenthusiast.com/2012/05/01/lexus-april-2012-sales-report/