Hyundai – along with its Kia affiliate – has been one of the few automakers able to post sales gains in the U.S. market in recent months, but the South Korean automaker on Thursday reported a rather hefty profit decrease for the first quarter of 2009.
Hyundai announced on Thursday that its first quarter profits tumbled 42.7 percent, largely due to a slumping global auto market. For the three month period ending March 31st, Hyundai earned $166.7 million, down from $291.7 million the year earlier.
Hyundai’s global sale decreased 13.3 percent in the first quarter, totaling 621,718 units.
But the first quarter wasn’t all bad news for Hyundai as it managed to significantly increase its global market share. Thanks to increased efforts in expanding and more established markets, Hyundai’s Q1 market share increased from 4 percent to 4.7 percent.
04/23, 12:46 PM
posted by:
Need more oil for GM
Awesome news. Hopefully this means the end of Hundai and their POS vehicles. Victims of the American Revolution.
04/23, 1:01 PM
posted by:
mayer_ray_nagin
LMAO at Need More Vaseline For GM – the first victim of the American Revolution will be Chrysler, the second victim will be GM.
04/23, 1:09 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
More like the American Dissolution.
Speaking of all things Hyundai, they really need to do something different with the front of the Genesis Coupe. The grill just looks so… blah- I can’t think of a better way to describe it.
04/23, 1:33 PM
posted by:
Kid Icarus
Kia sales are actually up for 2009 compared to 2008!
04/23, 2:24 PM
posted by:
HoosierHero
Holy crap! It’s a NMOFGM sighting! Hey NMO, did you happen to see all the news on your “American Revolution?” I think you are losing…
04/23, 3:01 PM
posted by:
aexcorp
Decrease in profit is obviously much better than a net loss, which is what the big 3 have been facing for over a year now. Being less profitable is what nearly every company out there is facing right now, but that’s normal in a slump.
NMOFGM, you might wanna polish up on your financial accounting…
But I do agree with some of you, Hyundai still has some work to do in terms of design, it would seem like it can’t be that hard to find a few people who have taste and flair when it comes to car design, but apparently not…
04/23, 3:05 PM
posted by:
Borat
I think everybody focused on wrong statistics. It is not how much profit tumbled, it is what level it tumbled from. If Toyota made 10 billions in 2007 and lost 1 billion in 2008, they still have a lot of cash to carry them through crisis (I don’t know real numbers, it is for demo purposes only). I don’t know what Hyundai was making before slump. 74% loss of profit may hurt them more then Toyota 25% loss.