Despite promises that their trucks would be hitting our roads in the first quarter of 2017 Hyundai has quietly landed around 100 trucks and started selling its new model Mighty E light duty models early in the third quarter.
In its first full month of sales under the new operation known as Hyundai Commercial Vehicles Australia, 31 Mighties were sold in July from the first shipment of 100 Mighties which arrived from Korea and were pushed out to its network of 10 dealers .
Hyundai spokesperson Anthony Hulme told Truck and Bus News that the trucks were held up as the company spent time getting the spec right.
“It all takes time. We brought in a number of evaluation trucks and made a while lot of changes to get the right spec for this market,” Hulme told us.
“We worked closely with our dealers to get the right vehicles for this market and then there was the inevitable lag between ordering and getting the stock landed here,” he added.
Hulme said that while the company would be importing some cab chassis models, the company was pursuing a strategy of bringing in ready to work trucks with bodies built at the factory, whether they are, trays, tippers, pantechs, or refrigerated vans.
“We are currently evaluating a three way tipper, and this will be on the way soon, and we are also looking at a steel tray model, our strategy is to have 90 per cent of our trucks ready built and ready to go,” he said
Hulme told us that there are currently ten dealers signed up including two in Sydney at Bankstown (HCVA owner Dilip Kumar’s Peninsula Motor Group) and in Windsor, two in rural NSW at Singleton and Murwillumbah, one in Brisbane at Acacia Ridge and one in Toowoomba.
The company has just signed Truck Centre WA as their reps in the West, they have one dealer in SA and are currently in discussion with three potential dealers in Victoria, one in Cairns in far North Queensland and several other outlets around the country.
Hulme also said that the larger medium and heavy duty Xcient prime mover is still a couple of months away from being signed off for local sales but he is hopeful it won’t be delayed too long.
“We are currently running through final homologation issues with the Xcient and I think that will take another couple of months,” Hulme said.
The delays mean that Hyundai’s stated aim of having around five per cent of the Australian truck market by the end of 2017 may be hard to achieve. The July result saw the brand grab one per cent of the truck sales for the month.
To take a five per cent stake in the market the brand will have to sell around 150 trucks a month and to achieve its 2018 goal of a 10 per cent share it will be selling 300 trucks a month and rivalling long established brand Fuso.