According to the latest report from the Philippine Automotive Dealers Association (PADA), Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI) sold only three units in January this year, and all of them are commercial vehicles.
Hyundai, once the country’s most valuable car brand, had zero sales last month for passenger vehicles. This is perhaps due to the very strict COVID-19 restrictions in January and the global chip shortage that is affecting many automakers. However, it seems like only Hyundai suffered this kind of fate.
Hyundai, under Hari, was the country’s third largest market-share holder from 2012 to 2014. Although it dropped to 5th in 2014, it immediately regained the third spot in 2016 until 2018. After that, it fell to 4th spot in 2019 until 2020. Last year, however, the brand showed very poor performance, making them settle in 8th place with only 9,061 units sold—a sharp decline from 16,346 units sold in the previous year.
Although the sales have already been declining for the past few years, the recent report from the Philippine Automotive Dealers Association (PADA) still seems like a nightmare, especially for a brand that used to be very glorious and competitive.
Even more sad is that Hyundai Philippines had to close some of its showrooms due to the adverse effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
