Hyundai to add 100,000 cars to public inventory

Hyundai is aiming to provide its U.S. dealers with about 100,000 additional cars to sell to retail customers this year, John Krafcik, the company’s president and CEO of North America said today.
As it stands, the Korean automaker is almost at full capacity at its U.S. plants.
But the company expects to gain as many as 100,000 additional cars and crossovers for its U.S. dealers by reducing the percent of vehicles it sells to fleet customers from about 10% to between 5% and 6%, Krafcik told reporters at an event today in Birmingham.
Hyundai also should gain “incremental” capacity from new models it is introducing that are produced in Korea from models such as the redesigned full-size Azera sedan, which just went on sale, and the redesigned Genesis Coupe, which went on sale last month. Both the Azera and the Genesis Coupe are built in South Korea.
That’s good news for dealers because in March, Hyundai had just 55,000 cars available in inventory but sold nearly 70,000.
“We are literally selling cars off the transporters,” Krafcik said.
The Korean automaker’s chairman has decided that Hyundai, which is coming off of several years of rapid sales growth, should focus now on improving the quality of its cars, customer service and supplier relations before adding additional capacity or new plants in North America.
“We are driven by this goal to be the most loved car company, that is our over-riding goal,” Krafcik said. “It’s not about volume.”
Still, Krafcik said he expects Hyundai’s overall sales to outpace the industry this year and predicted the company will sell more than 700,000 vehicles. In 2011, Hyundai sold 645,691 vehicles in the U.S.
“There is this idea that you can grow too fast,” Krafcik said.