More Car, Less Filling: Hyundai Makes Sonata Lite

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: July 31st, 2012

more car less filling hyundai makes sonata lite

What do you do if you lose market share and can’t stand it anymore? You deliver what the market wants. Hyundai is trying to make up for losses in China with a (so far) China only car that slot between the Elantra and the Sonata, says Reuters.

People who know the world’s largest car market will tell you that “Chinese want big cars with small engines.” They want roomy cars that signal that the owner has been prosperous; the engine however should be small enough to deliver a miserly consumption of gas, or “oil” as they say in China.

Hyundai will deliver just that. It will shrink its Sonata, and will power it with a 1.8 liter engine, and possibly a 1.6 liter turbo-charged engine. As Nissan has shown with the Sylphy (an overgrown Tiida,) big car with small engine is the key to Chinese hearts and wallets.

#BertelSchmitt #China #Hyundai #Sonata

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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11 comments

Freddy M on Jul 31, 2012

Interesting cultural factoid. All show and no go really seems to apply. One would think that Ford would then be prime to sell a ton of Explorers and Edges in China what with their miniscule turbo'ed motors, but the fact is they aren't.

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- Chicago Dude on Jul 31, 2012
  
  The rest of the world doesn't consider a 2.0 turbo to be a miniscule engine.
  
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- Raded on Jul 31, 2012
  
  In 1998, I went to the King Dome in Seattle. All I had ever heard about it was how horrible it was and how it was falling apart. In 2010, I went to the Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest). I had always seen it as a major architectural accomplishment and a beautiful building. The King Dome was in better shape less than 2 years before its demolition than the Bird's Nest was less than 2 years after its opening. Still looked great from afar though.
  
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- Freddy M on Jul 31, 2012
  
  @raded interesting. perhaps the same long term quality issues may affect the domestic Chinese brands but one would think the foreign brands, Audi Buick etc. would fare better. Would that change the Chinese expectation regarding quality?
  
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- Tekdemon on Aug 01, 2012
  
  How is this a cultural factoid? It's not a cultural thing in China at all, it's the practical fact that most of the world drives cars with much smaller motors than we do since fuel costs are even more of a problem pretty much everywhere else. Even BMW 3 series are commonly sold with 2 liter NA motors in the rest of the world. And there's the 116hp 316d diesel powered version that's popular in Europe too...
  
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SCE to AUX on Jul 31, 2012

Something sized like that could sell in the US, also, but I think Hyundai would be loathe to dilute sales of Sonatas or Elantras. These days, a 1.8 or 1.6T isn't so small.

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- Carzzi on Jul 31, 2012
  
  The 1.6T engine, if offered only in the Sonata, could prod some top-of-the-line Elantra buyers into considering a Sonata. It will encourage some base-2.4GDI Sonata buyers to upgrade. Most likely it'll return better EPA (maybe even real world) fuel consumption than the current 2.4GDI in the base Sonata, and comparable EPA figures to the naturally aspirated engines in the Elantras. It would cannibalize a large chunk of premium sales from the 2.0T, though.
  
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- Bd2 on Jul 31, 2012
  
  Sounds like it would be about the size of the i40.
  
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David42 on Jul 31, 2012

Interesting. Any idea what the popularity is of hybrids (compared to the US) and stop/start systems (compared to Europe)? I assume that gridlocked roads in prosperous cities mean that those kinds of low-speed fuel-savers would be even more popular in China.

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- Bertel Schmitt on Jul 31, 2012
  
  No on hybrids. No idea about stop start.
  
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- Raded on Jul 31, 2012
  
  I believe that only US and Japan buy hybrids in significant quantities. Europe is stuck on diesels. Ironic because hybrids would be significantly better in Europe than the US and diesels would be a better option for most than a hybrid in the US. Insert some sort of obligatory brown wagon with a stick joke here.
  
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