HYUNDAI’S president and ceo, Tony Whitehorn reckons that 2015 will be a challenging year for car sales in what will be essentially a flat market.

“Given we’ll be seeing car sales increase by 0.6% – that’s relatively little – those manufacturers who have new product will win in a plateauing car market,” said Whitehorn at a special business briefing at Tate Modern, London, on 29 January.

Whitehorn said that the economy, underlying the car sales figures, was going to be an interesting one in 2015 listing:

•    GDP +2.6
•    Unemployment 5.5%
•    Inflation 1.1%
•    General election

“I was talking to some bankers and a key metric they measure is consumer confidence. This, they said, was good last year but said it is tailing off slightly now. So that makes me think it will be the new product that will shine out and make the difference in a flat market.”

Whitehorn said that it was a great opportunity for Hyundai with plenty of new product and increased fleet sales.

Whitehorn listed the following new Hyundai product:

•    March – New i20 coupe, a new model
•    March – New i30 family in March (including small petrol turbo)
•    April – new i40
•    02 April – All-new Genesis on sale for 2 April
•    Product Momentum – Geneva show announcement (new SUV)

“This is a major opportunity for growth for us. We expect to sell 88,000 cars in 2015, that’s up 7% on last year.”