Xavier Martinet is an busy man. What is expected when you are the CEO in Europe of a company like Hyundai. But today it is not one of those days when meetings accumulate on the agenda or flights are taken to go to one country or another.
Today he is a busy man because Hyundai has decided that His great presentation of the Münich IAA Mobility He will do it on the street. The Motor Show of this German city is now a space that embraces the public. There is a closed congress center to which it goes as a press, to do business or if you are willing to pay the entrance.
If you live in Münich or, in a few days of tourism, you have coincided with the fair, I recommend that you lose yourself through its historic center. About 500 meters from Marienplatz you will be inside the bowels of a gigantic Mercedes scenario. By his side he compensates for Cupra Tindaya And the American proposal Lucid. A little further, Porsche and Audi.
Before the end of the Wide Ludwigstraße, the stand of Hyundai It stands out on the elevated. There are four spaces. The ends are flanked by the present, with a Ioniq 5 on one side and a Ioniq 6 N in the opposite. In the center two attractive design exercises. On the left the Hyundai INTEROID, a version with steroids of the Electric small which seems perfect to assault a championship of Rallycross.
To the right and Martinet’s back, the concept Three, the prototype designed by Eduardo Ramírez, head of design in Europe of the brand, who will also give us some brushstrokes on it. Hyundai is full of Spanish figures in relevant positions. José Muñoz, his global CEO, is the last responsible for the brand worldwide.
Two of these three appear have spoken with Xataka about their next release.
The fair price
“Today we are presenting the Concept Three. The production version will be launched next year. We do not confirm the official name but bearing the name of Ioniq … they can guess what it will be called,” says Martinet who refuses to speak directly of the company’s production model.
The present, for the moment, is a futuristic prototype that could only be a design game if it were not because Hyundai has risked in its electric versions. We could say that we do not believe its frontal sharp or its pixel lighting but the second can be seen in all the company’s electric. For the first, only a few steps are needed and placed in front of the spectacular ioniq 6.
The Hyundai Concept Three seems the logical and electrical evolution of the Hyundai CR-Z, a car for day to day, rational and logical but with a point of aggressiveness and risk that makes it attractive and different on the outside. Time will tell how far the company tense the company with the final image.
“It is a concept thought of the European, aerodynamic client, very efficient … but also thought to have a large interior space,” Eduardo Ramírez points out that, as we said, is the head of its design and together with Martinet, is today the most sought after person.
For that European client, the price is essential. “The Hyundai Inter starts at 23,000 euros and the electric Kona Kona in 37,000 euros. The production version of the concept Three will fit very well between them. For us it is really fundamental, really, to continue offering electricity in the heart of the European market, in segments B and C,” Martinet points out about the future position of the car.
Here is one of the keys and one of the questions that is most repeated in this type of electrical approaches. Is the public willing to pay an electric of between 20,000 and 30,000 euros assuming that It will generate some discomforts When do you want to make a long trip?
“The electric is not everything in Hyundai’s strategy. We are also continually developing hybrid technology, and right now we need to have this double approach,” Martinet already advances although he later points out that “it is very important to demonstrate that we can have a very strong supply of electric in all segments and demonstrate that changing to the electric is a possibility.”
That jump has two variants that Hyundai’s CEO rensures us. “The electric are more expensive than combustion cars. But you have more technology. The total cost, however, it is interesting because you have lower maintenance costs, electricity is cheaper than gasoline … Electrification is the way to follow to decarbonize the automobile industry.”
“At this time, we have a market share of 3.8% and we are quite stable compared to last year but we have space to grow. As a brand you have to add value, this component that we generate, say, the will of the customers to buy your vehicles. Hyundai has a distinctive positioning. The design is very important for us, technology also,” Martinet insists.
“Let’s not be defensive, let’s play the attack. We are one of the brands is more likely to resist better against the Chinese,” says the Hyundai Europe CEO
“A bold, modern and surprising,” those are the three words with which Eduardo Ramírez describes the brand’s design, a pillar on which the company’s models have been settled. “For the Ioniq range we have defined a characteristic language with the lighting of pixels, an interior space that is treated as a furnished space. Anyway, all Hyundai cars can be recognized because they have something in common in design even if they are different.”
Thus, one of those pillars on which to lift the brand is, without a doubt, the design. The other is technology. “There you have the ioniq 6 N. we are demonstrating that you can have sustainability, advanced electrical technology, and still a lot of driving pleasure with the characteristics of N (its sports division). We are demonstrating that electricity and performance can be synonyms somehow. And that is great. ”
It will also be key in a market like Spanish where the price and is a fundamental value for a vehicle to succeed. It is no accident that Chinese firms have preferred to enter Europe in the south, making special emphasis on the cost of the vehicle and the equipment delivered.
“I know that Spain is one of our best markets and we want it to continue so,” says Martinet. And sentence with a warning: “The Chinese are coming strongly and would say that they are a serious threat. But Hyundai is now much stronger than 10 or 15 years ago to resist and counterattack.”
For Martinet, the key is that they have managed to mobilize the customer beyond the price. “10 years ago, people bought the Hyundai in Europe because they were affordable, and now people buy Hyundai because they love the design, because they love technology, because they like the service we are offering in post -sales. We have to continue working on the same way and the Chinese are forcing us to do an even better job,” he describes the CEO of Hyundai in Europe.
And it ends up launching a reflection: “Let’s not be defensive, let’s play attack. Let’s try to score a goal more than them. We do that every time we throw a new car, every time we do a good job in sales and after -sales for our customers. We are one of the brands that is more likely to resist better against the Chinese. ”
Photos | Hyundai
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