Hyundai may really, honestly launch its own luxury brand. In a way, at least, perhaps

For years, Hyundai has been going back and forth over on question: Luxury brand or not? Imitate Infiniti? Do it like Lexus? A la Acura? This conundrum produced millions of Google hits, but otherwise led to nothing. Hyundai may finally cave in and do it. Hyundai’s U.S. sales chief Dave Zuchowski told Automotive News [sub] that such a move could be in the offing. Why? Customers are well ahead of Hyundai and already created a new brand called “Genesis.”

Said Zuchowski:

“There’s a conversation going on within the company that says, ‘Does having the Hyundai badge on the premium vehicles sell more vehicles, or does it restrict us from selling more vehicles?’”

Depending on which way this discussion goes, Hyundai’s “H” badge would be replaced by a Genesis badge on rear-wheel-drive premium vehicles, including the Equus, Genesis sedan and Genesis Coupe. The cars would be branded as Genesis with an alphanumeric naming system.

Zuchowski told AN that many Genesis buyers already replace the Hyundai badge with a winged Genesis badge. It’s a dealer-installed option that costs extra.  For the frugal, rebadging how-tos have been on YouTube since 2009.  Remember: Tailgate version, not hood version!”

No decision has been made, says AN, and no timetable has been set. If a Genesis brand is born, the cars would be sold in Hyundai dealerships, not through a separate dealership network.

Sure, this is how it always starts …

Before  his passing, the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited China in May 2011. At these events, it is customary to exchange welcome gifts. When Kim visited the First Auto Works (FAW) in Changchun, Jilin Province. Kim received a Red Star Hongqi with a big red bow on the hood. At least if the sources of Carnewschina are correct.

As the sources are identified as a “South Korean army fan-site,” reader discretion is advised.

Of course Kim had to reciprocate, that gift was generous. A full-spec HQ3 costs 688.800 yuan in China, or $108.000 US, or so we are told.

Kim ordered 3,.000 of the above pictured 6×6, FAW’s newest army truck. And some ‘army jeeps.’ as well.  Consider everything settled.

Carnewschina opines that the choice of the a Hongqi HQ3 as a gift was a bit odd:

“The car is based on a Toyota Crown, made in China by the FAW-Toyota joint venture. Toyota for sure is a Japanse brand and North Korea hates Japan big time, even more than it hates the US and South Korea.”

Maybe, when the Dear Leader found out the truth about his gift, he had a heart attack.

This year, Kia wants to lift sales in Europe by 22.8 percent to 356,000 vehicles. U.S. sales of Kias are budgeted to rise 10 percent to 534,000 vehicles this year, Kia told reporters at the quarterly results meeting in Seoul today.

Speaking of results, Reuters reports that the last quarter was a bit of a disappointment. Profits in the October-December quarter dropped 3.5 percent to 790.4 billion won ($704.52 million) from a year earlier. Analysts had expected 1.1 trillion won.

2011 Sales Hyundai, Kia

At first glance, the aggressive posture of the Koreans in Europe appears baffling. The European car market as a whole has been deteriorating. Last year, it was down 1.7 percent. This year, it is expected to be down 3 to 5 percent. Looking at Europe`s demographics, the trend points downwards. In the U.S. moderate growth is predicted.

Kia and Hyundai seem to be intent on exploiting the new frugality. They want to capture more market share in Europe, while European makers try to hold ground at home and focus on Asian growth markets instead. Internally (and sometimes in public,) they benchmark Hyundai.

One market seems to be unaffected by the Korean onslaught: Japan. After a lackluster attempt on penetrating the Japanese market, Hyundai took its ball in 2009, and went home.

The website for midwives the voice of union activists Labornotes reports that a South Korean Hyundai Motor worker set himself afire Sunday after management refused his request to slow down the line. The 44-year-old unionist, Shin Sung-hun, is in critical condition. According to the site, Shin poured paint thinner over and set fire to himself .

As a result, union members at the plant refused to work overtime, which crippled production of sport utility vehicles at Hyundai and Kia. Management agreed to make a public apology and to reprimand some supervisors.

That done, Hyundai said it would seek damages caused by the union’s action.

Rough crowd.

When we heard from Reuters about GM’s possible plan to shift production from its South Korean former Daewoo plants to Europe, we didn’t think that would be highly appreciated in South Korea.  After duly reporting that there could be a deal afoot to mollify the German and European steelworkers union with jobs taken away from South Korea, we opined: Let’s see what the militant South Korean unions have to say about that.”

We did not have to wait long. The unions in South Korea already threaten war, and when they say war, they mean war.

In an update to their detailed and well-researched article, the Reuters reporters write:

Moves to shift production could ignite protests from a militant labour union at GM Korea, which launched its first strike in three years last year.  Choi Jong-hak, a spokesman for GM Korea’s labor union, warned the union would “wage a war” if GM shifts output to Europe.

He said GM had already been shifting some production from South Korea to emerging markets with cheaper labour, causing “serious job insecurity.”

The plan is spearheaded by GM vice chairman and chairman of Opel’s supervisory board Steve Girsky. Reuters says Girsky has “close ties to GM’s largest union.” That is putting it mildly. Girsky  worked as an adviser to the UAW during the pre-bankruptcy times and was the UAW’s man on the GM board. He should know the unions better. He could ask his joint venture partners at China’s SAIC. When SAIC pulled out of Ssanyong, literally all hell broke loose.

Says Reuters:

“One idea would be shifting production of the high-volume Chevy Cruze small car to Gliwice, Poland, and then swapping production from that Opel plant to others in Western Europe, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing union strategy.”

“Another part of the proposal under discussion would bring output of the seven-passenger Chevy Orlando crossover to the Bochum, Germany, plant, the sources said. Bochum has long been considered the Opel plant most likely to be closed.”

According to the report, the two parties appear to be close to agreement. A lot of the information from Germany originated from “people close to the leadership of German union IG Metall,” as the report says.

There is not much time left. GM wants to have a clear strategy for Opel by the end of March, Reuters learned. GM CEO Dan Akerson is getting increasingly disgusted by the flow of red. Plans to take Opel bankrupt appear to be off the table, at l;east for now and until needed in the game of carrot & stick.

On Tuesday, Akerson told Reuters in Detroit:

“In Europe, I don’t think they have a Chapter 11 option. I know it’s not the same set-up as here. That being said, we’re working hard in Europe. We’re going to try to scale our production with the market opportunity.”

In 2011, GM exported approximately 250,000 vehicles from South Korea to Europe. If the deal goes through, jobs instead of cars will be exported to Europe. Let’s see what the militant South Korean unions have to say about that.

Hyundai has a new and extremely successful spokesman. He is well-known, he can speak about cars with more authority than a football player. Best of all: He works pro bono. It is Volkswagen’s CEO Martin Winterkorn. With a low-cost video, Winterkorn catapulted Hyundai’s image to formerly unknown heights.

The German magazine Wirtschaftswoche reports that the image of Hyundai took a leap a few days after Martin Winterkorn walked over to the Hyundai stand at the Frankfurt motor show and praised the non-rattling steering column.The candid camera video went viral on Youtube. Says Wirtschaftswoche:

“In the days after the show, the image of Hyundai improved considerably. In the beginning of September, its brandindex score was at -25. A few days later, it climbed to -14, at least for a while. The brand still remains a bit weakly positioned, however, it is interesting that the brand score improved especially in the eyes of internet-savvy social media users.”

The measurements are by YouGov.com and refer to the German market only. We have not seen the study.  Still, Winterkorn’s handlers haven’t learned. You’d think they are watching his back for people with cameras. No, they don’t. At the Tokyo Motor Show, I (video wall, blue shirt next to potted plant, face covered by camera) sat right behind Winterkorn, with recording devices at the ready. I overheard nothing of interest .

There were no cars of the competition to talk about – it was at Volkswagen’s own show.

At the beginning of this year, the United Auto Workers pledged that it would launch a campaign to organize the foreign-owned, non-union “transplant” factories in the US, threatening to tar uncooperative automakers as “human right abusers.” The campaign initially lost steam, but the UAW stuck to its pledge, re-iterating on several occasions that it would organize “at least one” transplant factory by the end of 2011. With one month left to accomplish that goal and no signs of progress in sight, the UAW has officially called off that goal. In fact, the UAW now hopes to simply pick an automaker to target by the end of 2011. Spokeswoman Michelle Martin tells Bloomberg

At this point, our hope is to make a decision about who we’re going to target by the end of the year. But obviously, we won’t have the organizing campaign completed by the end of the year.

This is not too surprising, considering the UAW announced last week that it would be focusing on dealership pickets initially rather than factory organizing. And sure enough, the first dealership picket has begun, targeting Hyundai dealerships. And yet, says Martin

This has nothing to do with the domestic organizing campaign. Hyundai is not the target.

Huh? If the UAW is not committing to organizing Hyundai’s assembly workers, why picket Hyundai dealerships?

The Freep explains that the union is targeting 75 Hyundai dealerships, in order to show international solidarity, a recurring theme in the presidency of UAW boss Bob King. Says King

The UAW has embraced a global vision of social justice and will mobilize its membership to defend labor rights here and in other parts of the world

So, what is the UAW picketing in solidarity with? Martin tells the Freep that Hyundai’s Korean unions are picketing across Korea to protest the firing of a worker whistleblower. According to Martin

The worker, who is employed by a Hyundai subcontractor, was fired after she reported the sexual harassment in 2010 to Korea’s National Human Rights Commission… The commission ruled in the worker’s favor and ordered the subcontractor to pay damages and rehire the worker, but the subcontractor has refused.

A UAW statement adds

Holding banners that read, “Stop Sex Discrimination at Hyundai” and “Reinstate Ms. Park,” UAW members from Los Angeles to New York, at more than 75 different dealerships, informed American auto buyers about an injustice to an autoworker on the other side of the globe.

“Though we may work for different companies and in different countries, as workers, we support each other’s struggles and know that one of the best ways to hold our employers accountable is through consumer action at dealerships,” said Mike O’Rourke, an 33-year employee and president of UAW Local 1853 at General Motors’ Manufacturing Facility in Spring Hill, Tenn.

Hyundai Motor America’s response: the worker was an employee of a subcontractor at Glovis, a Hyundai “affiliate,” therefore

the issue has nothing to do with Hyundai Motor Company

In other words, the UAW will be alienating itself from Hyundai’s US workers and dealers over one person who doesn’t even work for Hyundai. Standing on principle is great, but trying to block sales of cars will not exactly endear Hyundai’s assembly workers to the union. Meanwhile, similarly to the UAW’s last protest against Hyundai, there doesn’t seem to be as much moral clarity on this issue as the UAW would like it to appear. Of course sexual harassment has no place in the workplace, and  the circumstances of this case in particular do not sound good, but by hammering on the treatment of contracted employees, and by associating the contracter “affiliates” with the automakers they work for, the UAW opens itself up to criticism along the same lines.

The Freep is also reporting today that the UAW has called off a protest that was planned at GM’s Orion Assembly plant, over contract negotiations with a supplier at that plant. Workers at the GM affiliate supplier LINC, who organize and deliver parts for the Orion plant, make ten dollars per hour, less even than the “Tier Two” wages that most Orion assembly workers make. And yet, with GM’s stock (which funds part of the UAW’s VEBA account) remaining weak, it seems unlikely that the union will actually protest, let alone strike, over the LINC wages. Which raises a tough question for the union: why are they so concerned about transplant workers making $14.50 per hour and up when they are working alongside folks making $10 per hour? And if workers at a Hyundai supplier are Hyundai’s responsibility, why isn’t the UAW livid at GM for allowing LINC to hire workers for such low wages? And in light of these fundamental contradictions, a single case of apparent injustice half the world away seems even less relevant.

Hyundai, which has a flourishing and fast-growing joint venture with Beijing’s BAIC, is jumping on the bandwagon of fake Chinese brands. Probably not on Hyundai’s own volition, and probably with a lot of gentle urging by the Chinese government which thinks that the answer to China’s cluttered market is brands, brands, and  more brands.

Carnewschina has it that the new brand of the Hyundai/BAIC JV will be called “Shouwang.”

Google Translate claims it means “Number one watching”, but it is unlikely that the car is targeted at people who watch other people go to the bathroom. There is probably some deeper meaning, inaccessible to us longnoses.

Carnewschina has pictures of the first Shouwang, a BHCD-1 in mild camo, as it is rolled into the Guangzhou Auto Show. The show will open its doors tomorrow, should you be near Guangzhou, you can see a Shouwang in the flesh.

Carnewsschina has a negative outlook on the thing:

“It looks very cool indeed, but the real thing will likely look much worse and will likely be based on an old Hyundai Elantra. The BHCD-1 concept is a hybrid, the real thing will just get a normal petrol engine.”

It is an open secret in China that the darned foreigners usually don’t contribute more than has-been technology to these brand exercises in futility. By the way, the Chinese insist on calling these joint venture brands “sub brands.” They are not. They are freestanding brands, just like “Lexus” or “Scion”. A sub brand would be a “Toyota Prius” and its family of v, c, plug-ins. or what have you.  But the Chinese insist on calling freestanding brands sub-brands. Goes to show how much they know about branding.

TTAC readers have suffered through my weird crush on Kia’s Picanto/Morning-based “Tam” for months now, patiently indulging my fascination with a car that’s so niche it won’t even be sold in Europe. But with Kia showing off these production images of what will be known as the Kia Ray, it seems that a lot of what I found so beguiling about this A-segment MPV will make it to production. What we’re looking at is a tiny A-segment micro-van, with the Picanto/Morning‘s 1.0 three-banger or 1.25 liter four. And, as we suspected based on early prototype shots, the car has three standard doors and one mini-slider on the passenger side, confirming that this funky little cube is half Kia Soul, half Hyundai Veloster. At a little over $11k, the Ray will also be a relatively cheap Kia, which is why it’s focused on Asian markets like Korea and China… but it’s probably too small to ever make it to the US or Europe. Scion is probably breathing a small sigh of relief…

[H/T: Our man in Korea, Walter Foreman]

The US-Korean (not quite) free trade agreement will bear fruit, and U.S. cars will be shipped to Korea. The funny part is: Some of the first companies to do so are Japanese. The Nikkei [sub] writes that Toyota will begin exporting cars from the U.S. to South Korea in early November.

According to the Nikkei story, Toyota will send its Sienna minivan on the long trip across the Pacific instead of shipping it from nearby Japan. The yen has become so expensive that it’s cheaper to ship Siennas from Indiana to Seoul.

It won’t be a huge business: Toyota plans to export about 50 Siennas a month to South Korea, says The Nikkei.

In many ways it was a strange scene. The president of Korea, speaking in a US factory that builds the replacement to a car that was once imported from Korea. The president of the United States, speaking in a factory that can only competitively build subcompact cars because of a government-ordered “innovative labor practices” that unionized workers were not able to ratify. In many ways, both President Obama and President Lee were visiting the graveyard of their ideals. Which is another way of saying, that this meeting symbolizes a new pragmatism.

American workers may not be getting paid what they once were, but they’re building cars at a profit. Korea may not be exporting as many cars to the US, but it’s putting the squeeze on Japan. Professor Kim Seung-jin of Hankuk University sums up the dynamic in the Korea Times, saying

There is no free lunch in the world… Korea should get into the U.S. market prior to Japan and China. The more we delay the less the advantage. You should know that the world is still living off the American market

This deal probably won’t boost US auto exports to Korea in the way Obama is hoping for, but it’s a reminder that US manufacturing is slowly becoming more competitive… and that our market remains an attractive place to do business. Free trade is necessarily a messy business for politicians, and protectionism might have kept Orion’s wages higher or Aveo production in Korea. But by embracing free trade, these two presidents could walk into Orion, live up to the downsides of free trade, and promise a stronger, more sustainable economic future.

It’s been… several months since I last indulged my strange obsession with Kia’s forthcoming funky take on first-gen Scion xB values, known as the TAM. And back then, all I had to share were a few crummy photos. Now, thanks to Youtube user daniel78park, we can see the Tam flying down the Korean freeway in glorious cell-phone-o-vision. And though I’ve always assumed the TAM was just a boxy, city-delivery variant of the Picanto/i10 platform, it seems my weird crush is more than that. Automotive News [sub] reports

Kia has dubbed its EV effort the TAM project. Kia’s first EV will be a small vehicle based on the platform underpinning the Hyundai i10 minicar. The company plans to produce 2,000 units in 2012.

Hold up… is my weird crush electric?

If so, this would explain why so little is known about it. And all the more reason to bring it to the US, as an escalation of the “reverse halo” strategy that Hyundai is leveraging with its Veloster. In fact, with an unconventional door configuration of its own (three standard doors, one slider), Kia just has to call this thing the “Soulster” and watch Scion squirm. Of course, with only 2k units planned for next year, this car isn’t leaving Korea anytime soon. Unless, of course, there will be a gas version too… say, the direct-injected, turbocharged 1.2 liter four-banger that Karesh mentions in his Hyundai i10 review. Or, maybe, just maybe, I’m getting a little carried away with this weird crush of mine…

Hyundai and Kia are technically separate companies, with Hyundai owning less than 50% of its junior partner. But as the two major divisions of the Hyundai-Kia Motor Group, the two firms share resources and align their strategies through carefully-maintained relationships in the classic Korean chaebol (conglomerate) fashion. Hyundai has long been the senior partner in the relationship, getting the newest technologies and the most expensive new cars. But in both Korea and abroad, Kia is beginning to catch up with its big brother, raising questions about the future shape of its delicate relationship. Together, Hyundai and Kia enjoy a dominant position in Korea, earning 45.2% and 33.2% of the overall Korean market in 2010 (including commercial vehicles).  But if you just look at sedans and SUVs, the Korea Herald reports that their 2010 market share numbers are much closer: 39.6% and 35/7% respectively, and converging

Hyundai Motor Group is focusing on the possibility that Kia will catch up with Hyundai within one year in terms of monthly market share ― for sales of sedans and sport utility vehicles ― domestically for the first time…

The gap for sales of sedans and SUVs have continued to narrow ― 22.9 percentage points in 2007, 17 percentage points in 2008, 15.4 percentage points in 2009 and 3.9 percentage points in 2010.

And this fresh-brewed sibling rivalry isn’t just about Korea: around the world, Kia is catching up. And this shifting relationship is shaking things up at the highest levels of the group’s leadership.

Fox Business reports that, last month in Korea

Kia’s domestic sales rose 4.4% but Hyundai’s slid 1.1%.

And that differential could be higher if it weren’t for the company’s single largest “problem”: demand is outstripping supply. The Korea Herald notes

“Some purchasers of Kia cars have to wait two or three months to see their products due to the weaker production capacity,” a local dealer said.

So, why is Kia pulling ahead of Hyundai in Korea? The Herald opines

Automobile dealers attributed Kia’s noteworthy sales performance in the local market to growing popularity of four models ― K5, K7, Sorento R and Sportage R.

Kia Motors has been successful in attracting Korean consumers by launching cars with innovative designs after the company scouted Peter Schreyer, a car designer known for helping to create the New Beetle and the Audi TT, in 2006.

And Automotive News [sub]‘s Rick Kranz has a similar interpretation

While the styling for the Sonata has been a home run in the United States, the Korean market initially was turned off by what some buyers might say is the car’s audacious design language, which Hyundai calls “fluidic sculpture.”

Simply, the Korean market apparently prefers something less radical; judging from Hyundai’s past model line, maybe “ultraconservative” is a better term.

“There are some people who are very critical of our (design) activities” in Korea, Cho Won Hong, Hyundai Motor’s chief marketing officer, told Beene. “However, we believe we should continue to apply this design identity.”

And because both firms are seling more vehicles than they can produce, a decision will have to be made at the top of the group’s leadership in order to determine how to invest in future production capacity. And because that decision will define relations between the two firms, it has huge political implications. The Herald notes

Executives of Hyundai Motor Group, however, are allegedly taking the situation seriously.

Should Hyundai be overtaken by Kia at home, the automaker will see its brand image as the long-standing No. 1 carmaker of Korea undermined and overseas sales damaged.

“It is quite interesting whether Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo and his only son Eui-sun, CEO of Kia Motors, will tolerate the scenario,” a dealer said.

Meanwhile, there are already signs of change at the top of the chaebol. Last week, the WSJ [sub] reported

Hyundai announced Friday the retirement of Chief Executive Yang Seung-suk, who ended a nearly three-year stint in the post, during which time the car maker outpaced the competition in one of the industry’s worst downturns. In March, Lee Hyun-soon, Hyundai’s head of research and designer of the company’s first engine, also retired abruptly.

Hyundai’s ability to absorb such high-profile departures is rooted in a complex management structure built around Chairman Chung Mong-koo, the son of the company’s founder. Its day-to-day operations are handled by a suite of executives, the most visible of which in recent years has been Mr. Yang, known outside of South Korea as Steve Yang.

Mr. Yang was chiefly responsible for nondomestic operations and global marketing for Hyundai, which, with its affiliate Kia Motors Co., is the world’s fifth-largest car maker by unit sales.

In a statement, Hyundai said Mr. Yang’s duties would be divided among two executives, Mr. Chung and Kim Eok-jo, but neither would immediately receive the CEO designation.

The consolidation of power around Mr Chung, and the rise of executives with strong ties to Kia (which Mr Chung personally oversees), caused Wards Auto [sub] to report

Some analysts say Kia has outperformed Hyundai in the domestic and some overseas markets, speculating the two executives initially were brought over to provide a spark.

Is Kia coming into its own? Certainly US sales of the brand are nowhere near Hyundai’s blazing growth, but globally the balance of power appears to be shifting. We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this emerging sibling rivalry.

And though the possibility of a simultaneous global launch is still out of reach (video of the Korean launch can be found here), this model is a key element in GM’s globalizing effort, replacing not only the US Malibu, but also the Daewoo Tosca (a.k.a Chevy/Holden Epica). We knew GM has way too many architectures across its global lineup, but were you aware that the Tosca/Epica had optional Porsche-designed transverse straight-six engines, in 2.0 and 2.5 liter configurations? Neither did I. But with the new Malibu, it’s straight-up-and-down GM: the Epsilon II platform, with 2.0 or 2.4 Ecotec engines (in Korea, anyway… an all-new 2.5 liter engine is on tap fro the US). We may be quick with the Daewoo jokes, but this new Malibu is doubtless making the automotive world a much smaller, more homogenous place. Welcome to the future… [Hat Tip to our man in Korea, Walter Foreman}

It’s strange: When you talk to the big manufacturers in Japan, then they are worried by benchmarking Volkswagen and Hyundai. GM never comes up. When you talk to Bob Lutz, who has been re-hired as a part-time consultant to GM executives, then he is worried by benchmarking Volkswagen and Hyundai. Toyota never comes up. Bob Lutz thinks the Japanese have lost it. Germany’s Manager Magazin disturbed Lutz’s Swiss vacation with an interview, and Lutz, always good for explosive quotes, did not disappoint:

“A while ago, many experts thought, the race for the top position in the auto business would be a dead heat between GM, Toyota, and Honda. This has changed. The Big Three are now GM, Volkswagen, and Hyundai. Toyota is in decline. The Japanese lost their bullet-proof quality image. Their cars aren’t especially pretty. Their driving dynamics is below the level of the best European and American cars.

GM on the other hand has improved its engineering, payroll and healthcare are way down after the bankruptcy. When it comes to platform sharing amongst brands, GM always has been absolutely competitive. Trust me: GM will give Volkswagen and Hyundai a tough fight.”

With Maximum Bob’s, and Martin Winterkorn’s endorsement, I guess it’s safe to buy a Hyundai.

At the Frankfurt Auto Show, when all the festivities and pageantry are over, it is customary to stroll through the booths, stands and halls of the competition to find out what they have. The real research is done by faceless drones that pose as journalists or customers. The drones must have brought back alarming intell to Halle 3, where Volkswagen holds court: “Ach du mein Lieber, Hyundai fielded a fearsome adversary to the Golf with the new i30.”

The whole white-haired Volkswagen board dropped their coffee cups and invaded the Hyundai display, led by Prof. Dr. Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen. Winterkorn himself sat behind the wheel of the i30. The former head of Quality Assurance was shocked:

He pulled on the adjuster of the steering column, and heard – nothing. At Volkswagen, there is an audible (“klonk!)  feedback whenever the steering column is adjusted.

Immediately, Klaus Bischoff, head of Volkswagen Brand Design was summoned. He pulled on the adjuster: No sound.

“Da scheppert nix,” exclaimed Winterkorn in his heavy Bavarian accent. “There is no rattle!”

Winterkorn was livid: “How did he pull that off?” He, the blasted Korean. “BMW doesn’t know how. We don’t know how.” He, the blasted Korean, must have found out how to battle the dreaded Scheppern.

Tension is high. This could affect careers. Someone quickly explains that there had been a solution, “but it was too expensive.” That gets Winterkorn is even more enraged. “Then, why does he know how?” For less money. He, the Korean. There is no answer. Hyundai has beaten Volkswagen at the Scheppern front.

Winterkorn measures the A-pillar, runs his hands over the plastic. He walks away, his entourage trots after him. Deeply in thought and very worried.

Winterkorn’s Strategie 2018 calls for a decimation of Toyota. Toyota will be behind Volkswagen this year. The new enemy, much to Volkswagen’s confusion, is GM. Now, with a silent i30, will Volkswagen have to fight Hyundai?

The Japanese are just as worried of the Koreans, and will gladly join a coalition.

(And if Hyundai snuck the original video on YouTube: Good for them. That’s how it’s done these days in the propaganda business.)

This must be the oddest story of the day: According to conventional wisdom, the South Korean market is pretty much closed to American cars. “Not so,” says a company that makes a lot of cars in the U.S. The odd part: The company is Japanese. It’s Toyota. If The Nikkei [sub] has its facts and sources together, then Toyota will export Kentucky-made Camrys to South Korea.

According to The Nikkei, “the yen’s historic rise is causing Toyota foreign exchange losses on exports from Japan.” That we can believe without checking. The Nikkei also heard that “Toyota believes it would be less costly to export from the U.S. if a free trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea is ratified that would eliminate tariffs between the two nations.”

That free trade agreement had been hammered-out last year, but it has yet to be ratified. If the pact gets the nod, then Toyota could ship the 5,000 Camrys it sold in South Korea in 2010 from Kentucky instead from Aichi. According to The Nikkei, it will be cheaper.

There are all kinds of car export numbers floating around on the internet, most of them wrong. The authoritative number comes from the U.S. Commerce Department which says that in 2010,  16,659 vehicles were exported from the U.S. to South Korea. Toyota could lift that number single-handedly above 20,000.

PS: Official comment from Toyota: “As this concerns future product plans,we would like to refrain from commenting.”

Back in April, I saw this car at Hyundai’s America Technical Center, but it was still heavily camouflaged and cameras were verboten. And unlike Hyundai’s other big 2012 Model-Year news, the wildly-improved “Grandeur” Azera replacement, we hadn’t seen photos of the updated GenCoupe leak out of Korea. Until now. Our man in Seoul, Walter Foreman, sent us these pics showing an updated Genesis Coupe sporting its own take the familiar familial fascia. Look for an official reveal at the LA Auto Show.

Good news for Opel workers: They could all get Chevys, and GM CEO Dan Akerson won’t sell them down the river, to China, to Korea, or god forbid to Wolfsburg. “We would never give Opel away. Opel contributes to our global size and is not for sale, end of discussion,” Akerson told Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland. An unambiguous statement. Opel workers would have loved to hear it a bit earlier. But better late than Hyundai.

Akerson had more news. Some good. Some, well, you decide …

The good news is that “GM is looking into producing Chevrolets in Europe.” The few Chevrolets that currently change hands in the EU – in June, the number was 17,114, says ACEA  – are made in Russia or South Korea. These numbers are scheduled to grow a lot, and GM doesn’t want to ship cars from Korea to Europe if it has plants there that could use some work.

The bad news is that Akerson thinks the U.S. economy could nosedive. Nosedive even more? “There is the danger of a new recession, and I see this with concern,” Akerson told the paper. Result? Americans will buy fewer cars than hoped and projected. GM thought the year would end at 13 to 13.5 million cars sold in the U.S. Very few still believe this, and Akerson is beginning to have doubts himself: “Currently, we maintain the forecast, but we think it will be the lower range of our prognosis.”

The Opel unions are unfazed by the danger of their mothership hitting rough seas. They are happy about Chevbrolet coming to Europe: “We have promoted this for quite a while,” said über-shop-steward Klaus Franz to Automobilwoche [sub]. “This would fill the capacities of some sites here.” There is no badge-nationalism in the union camp. Chevrolet, Opel, whatever fills the line.

Background: GM wants a bigger European footprint for Chevrolet in Europe. Instead of in Korea, the cars shall be made in Europe. However, as part of the restructuring plan, there is a contract that precludes new European plants before 2014. That’s why the cars will have to be made at Opel or Vauxhall if the great Chevroletization of Europe is to become reality.

According to Germany’s usually well informed AUTO BILD, Korea’s Hyundai either did or still does cast longing eyes on struggling Opel. Opel is on Hyundai’s horizon, literally: Hyundai’s German tech center in Rüsselsheim is only a few miles away from Opel. “Hyundai is growing faster than any other automaker. They are desperately seeking new engineers at the Hyundai tech center,” writes AUTO BILD, “and the plant in Czech Nošovice cannot be expanded further. Opel with thousands of well trained engineers, precious EV know-how (Ampera) and underutilized plants would be a great fit.” And this is how the latest car-cliffhanger started …

According to AUTO BILD’s information, Hyundai telegraphed its interest in Opel to GM. Volkswagen heard about the flirts (there are very few secrets in Germany’s incestuous auto business, especially when it involves Ausländer – foreigners .) Alarm bells went off in Wolfsburg.

“If Opel would sell to a Chinese manufacturer, we would just sit and watch,” a high-ranking Volkswagen insider leaked to AUTO BILD. “But with Hyundai – something needed to be done.”

VW started to do due diligence on Opel. Volkswagen’s CFO Hans Dieter Pötsch had his people run scenarios. Ferdinand Piëch became involved. Finally, Volkswagen told GM how much they were willing to pay. “Apparently, it wasn’t enough,” says AUTO BILD, “no negotiations followed.“

When the Opel overtures did not turn into a full scale opera, Wolfsburg leaked the story to the press, says AUTO BILD.  But the drama was far from over.

For two months, GM CEO Dan Akerson refused to deny that Opel is for sale.  German auto expert Stefan Bratzel, dean of the Bergisch Gladbach auto academy, thinks he knows why:  GM is under the watchful eye of the SEC. “If Akerson denies a sale, and then sells Opel after all, he is in trouble with the law,” Bratzel said. Finally, last week, there was a lukewarm denial from Akerson: “We don’t comment on speculation — and there has been a lot of speculation — but I will say this: Opel is not for sale.”

Ever the spurned lover, Volkswagen’s Winterkorn started trash talking about Opel. Only the Chinese would be interested in Opel, and even that remains a very theoretical possibility. That elicited an immediate response from GM: “General Motors has a longstanding policy of not commenting on rumors and speculation.  Unfortunately, some of our competitors do not show similar restraint.”

AUTO BILD says that Winterkorn’s comments are wishful thinking: “Opel is getting it together. Sales and market shares are up in nearly all European markets. This makes Opel attractive, also for Hyundai. VW chief Martin Winterkorn “is scared of the Koreans as the biggest obstacle in Volkswagen’s way to #1,” writes AUTO BILD. Winterkorn himself had confirmed that the Koreans “are more brutal than the Japanese and attack everywhere in the world.”

Adds AUTO BILD: „Possibly also in Europe, together with neighbor Opel as a partner.“

Mahindra & Mahindra’s abortive plans to bring its rugged diesel-powered pickups to the US have garnered quite a cult following here at TTAC.  We follow the impending coming of M&M religiously. And now we demand license fees for the continuously coming cult car.

M&M has taken the cult concept to heart.

“We want to be India’s first global cult brand,” Anand Mahindra told Automotive News [sub]. They want to do that with the help of Korea’s Ssangyong which M&M bought on the cheap after it had been abandoned by China’s SAIC.  This had caused a minor civil war around the Korean plant. Says AN:

“The company switched owners four times, faced bankruptcy and suffered one of the most violent strikes in modern Korean history in 2009. Workers in that clash took control of a plant for almost three months, using iron pipes and Molotov cocktails to battle air and land police commandos armed with tear gas and water cannons.”

How the cult will come together is anybody’s guess. The article is long on to which schools  Anand Mahindra went, and that he is an avid Twitterer, but it lacks specifics of the coming cult.

Take it from someone who’s been there, Mahindra: The only cult that counts in the business is the cult of the golden calf  by the name of sales & profits.

To bridge the time until Kia reports hard numbers for June, we did some spreadsheet acrobatics and arrived at the attached. The black numbers are hard reported numbers, the grey numbers are calculated. If Reuters’ 22 percent are correct, then the June table for Hyundai-Kia should look something like this:

Having crossed the half year mark, we will get half year global results for all large automotive groups – including GM. We are expecting a big shake-up on the global rankings for 2011, and the June results will be a pretty good indicator for where the year should end up.

Hyundai said on Thursday it was to raise U.S. auto sales by 18.2 percent this year to 1.06 million vehicles, Reuters says.

Someone is really trying to shop around Opel. Or maybe it’s just a tactic to cow German unions into submission?  Two weeks ago, Volkswagen and the inevitable Chinese were floated as possible buyers. What other bogeymen could there be? Ah, yes, the Koreans!

Hyundai said yesterday that there is no interest in buying Opel, Reuters reports. In Germany, rumors of a Korean connection had received next to no traction anyway.

Hyundai’s answer: “Thank you all so much, but we can grow on our own.” Hyundai wants to lift vehicle sales in Europe by 10 percent to 400,000 units this year and to half a million by 2013.

As our May roundup of European sales shows, Hyundai currently is the #3 bestselling brand in Europe after Toyota and Nissan. Taken together with Kia however, the group commands a 4.7 percent share of the EU market, outdistancing Toyota (4.1 percent), and even edging past Daimler (4.6 percent).  It surely looks Hyundai needs Opel as much as Volkswagen does …

Just to keep things interesting, GM has yet to issue a formal denial that it wants to marry-off daughter Opel.