Reuters reports that exclusively for the Chinese market, Hyundai is working on a model that will sit between the Sonata (pictured) and the Elantra.
The idea is to create a vehicle that’s smaller and cheaper than the Sonata but which is roomy and upmarket enough for the growing Chinese middle-class who want to trade up to bigger cars.
Although we don’t know prices yet, the ‘Sonata-lite’ is speculated to have a choice of 1.6 litre turbo or 1.8 litre engines and be positioned against Nissan’s Sylphy, which Nissan itself developed by turning the Tiida (Latio in Malaysia) into a bigger car. The Sylphy sells for 119,000 RMB (RM59,500) in China, so there’s a ballpark figure for you.
Hyundai is the fourth-best selling passenger car brand in China so far this year, behind Volkswagen, Nissan and Toyota, according to research firm LMC Automotive. However the company lost some market share at the end of the first half of 2012. The ‘Sonata-lite’ should help regain some of that when it’s launched in 2014.
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Hyundai drop it’s class?
Sonata should compete against Camry/Accord/Teana but not Sylphy.
Will they think of the buyer feeling?
Why don’t they compete with Tilda/Latio then? Make it more worth for bucks. D class car selling at B class price.
Cheap!
Did you even read the article?
adik, let me explain to you:
Sonata will still be competing against Camry/Accord..in china. The article above says that Hyundai will create a new model, slightly smaller than the sonata, slightly bigger than the elantra for the demanding china market..if you still don’t get it, i surrender..
Please read and understand the article….
If Hyundai is the 4th best selling brand in China, this would translate to tens of thousands of vehicle sales per month. The Chinese, being very smart people, cannot be wrong in their judgement of quality. And yet all the Toyota and Honda salesman will come here and bad mouth Hyundai.
Good Nissan is No. 3 & the best seliing car in China is cheap looking China Van name Wulling Sunshine, follow the Chinese & buy that crap Van please then.
Ok…first thing they should do is incorporate Hyundais hexagonal grille and the remove that grille…..it’s just too big
china market is so huge that car makers can create more levels of different segment of cars for the many different “segments” of buyers/demands. For example, they have long-wheel-base BMW 3 series there becoz the demand exists..
china buyer so picky…..elantra too small, sonata too big?? cannot brain this.