Santa Fe Production Returns to Hyundai Plant
February 2016
By David Zaslawsky
Photos Courtesy of Hyundai Motor America
A record number of vehicles were sold in the U.S. last year and leading the surge were trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossover utility vehicles.
This past December, the mid-sized and compact sedan segments, combined, accounted for an estimated 20 percent of all vehicle sales while small SUVs and crossovers combined to account for nearly 40 percent of sales, according to Kelley Blue Book. The estimated December sales for mid-sized SUVs and crossovers was 16 percent and the truck segment accounted for 14 percent.
Of course, with gas prices less than $2 a gallon, buyers flock to SUVs, crossovers and trucks and now Hyundai, which has focused on the sedan segment, will increase its production of the Santa Fe Sport.
The Korean automaker will continue to produce the five-passenger Santa Fe Sport at its Kia plant in West Point, Georgia, according to a spokeswoman for the manufacturing facility. She said the plant does not disclose individual vehicle production numbers, but the plant has a capacity of 360,000 units and produces three vehicles: Santa Fe, Kia Optima and Kia Sorento.
To increase Santa Fe Sport production, Hyundai Motor Co. announced that the vehicle will also be produced at the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) plant in Montgomery starting in the summer. Hyundai is investing $52 million on retooling, robot programming and other logistical projects to prepare the plant for the return of Santa Fe production. The vehicle was last manufactured at the Montgomery site in 2010. The Hyundai plant, which produced 400,000-plus Santa Fe models before moving all production to the Kia plant, was designed to build five different vehicles.
“This new production will help us meet the growing demand for one of our most popular products,” Hyundai Motor America President and CEO Dave Zuchowski said in a statement. “We’re very happy Hyundai has been able to make this change, which will result in more great Santa Fe crossovers available to our dealers and customers.”
Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said in a statement: “Over the past decade, Hyundai’s Alabama assembly plant has proven itself as one of the industry’s most innovative and productive manufacturing centers. Hyundai’s decision to add the Santa Fe Sport SUV to the production lineup in Montgomery shows the confidence that the automaker has in its Alabama facility and the workforce there.”
Hyundai Motor America will later announce the production target for Santa Fe production, along with numbers for the Sonata and Elantra that are currently manufactured in Montgomery. The HMMA plant has a capacity of 400,000 units and produced nearly 385,000 units last year after successive years of 399,000 and 398,000 units.
“The volume of production is based on a combination of plant capacity and market demand,” said Robert Burns, senior manager of public relations and team relations for HMMA.
HMMA Vice President of Production Chris Susock told WSFA 12 News that SUV demand “has really spiked, so for Hyundai to be successful in the market, it’s important that we’re able to supplement that demand. It’s important for us as a plant that we utilize the capacity at 100 percent or better out of our facility …”
The Santa Fe has annually been Hyundai’s No. 3 best-seller in the U.S. behind Elantra and Sonata. Santa Fe sales were 118,134 units last year and 107,906 in 2014. Sales surged from 71,016 units in 2012 to 88,844 units in 2013.
“We’re thrilled to bring back another pillar of the Hyundai lineup to our production mix here at HMMA,” Susock said in a statement. “We’ve been extremely proud to build both the Sonata and Elantra on our assembly line for Hyundai in the U.S. and we will continue our tradition of quality and productivity with the addition of the Santa Fe Sport in 2016.”
Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange told WSFA 12 News, “It gives (Hyundai) an opportunity to continue have their vehicles moving up the food chain as far as a percentage of the market and growth and things like that – so this is really good news for Hyundai and this is really good news for Montgomery.”
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said in a statement: “Automotive manufacturing is an important industry in Alabama, and Hyundai Motor Manufacturing is one of our most successful automotive manufacturers. Today’s news is good economic news for the River Region and the entire state of Alabama. By 2016, the Hyundai Santa Fe will be proudly ‘Made in Alabama’ and sold around the world.”
0Record-Setting Year
February 2016
By David Zaslawsky
If Hyundai can match the five percent sales increase this year that it had in 2014, then the automaker will reach a new milestone – 800,000 units in the U.S.
With a redesigned Elantra rolling off the assembly line at the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama plant in Montgomery, the 800,000 figure is definitely within reach. The Elantra was the company’s top-selling vehicle in the U.S. for the third straight year, with 241,706 units – about 6,200 units from its all-time record of 247,912 Elantras sold in 2013. Elantra had the best month ever for a Hyundai model with almost 29,000 vehicles sold last March.
The Sonata, which is also manufactured in Montgomery, was the No. 2 seller for the third consecutive year with 213,303 units. It marked the fifth straight year of 200,000-plus units sold, topping Elantra’s streak of four straight years with 200,000-plus units.
The Montgomery plant manufactured 384,519 vehicles in 2015, a decline of about 15,000 units from 2014. It was the third-highest production total since the plant began operations in 2005.
Although Hyundai’s market share has been impacted by not offering a truck model and only two crossover/sport utility vehicles in its lineup, it still was the sales of crossover and sport utility vehicles that sparked the nearly 36,000 more vehicles sold in 2015 than 2014.
“Hyundai once again experienced a record year and the CUV segment proved to be the star,” Derrick Hatami, vice president of national sales for Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement. “Not only did Tucson end the year with sales up 34 percent, but for the month of December we experienced a 167 percent sales gain over last December. For the year, Santa Fe was up nine percent.”
Tucson sales overall were up about 16,000 units over 2014 while Santa Fe had an 11,000-unit increase over 2014. Elantra actually topped all models with a nearly 19,000-unit increase over the previous year.
It was the sixth straight year that Hyundai set a record for annual sales, with 761,710 units, an increase of about 35,000 vehicles from 2014 and a much more robust increase than 2013 (17,000 units) and 2014 (5,000 units). The year also had Hyundai establishing five of its all-time top monthly totals. That included three of its five monthly totals of 70,000-plus units. Back in 2010, Hyundai sold close to 540,000 vehicles in the U.S.
Domestic auto sales set an all-time record in 2015 with 17.4 million-plus units sold and that does not include full-year results for Porsche. It is expected that final figures will be 17.5 million units – 1.1 million units more than 2014 and 100,000 units more than the previous record of 17.4 million vehicles sold in 2000.
