Thursday, October 06, 2011
By Pranjal Gera
Honda out Hyundai in, as the fifth largest car manufacturer in America
Hyundai Motor Group; South Korea’s largest automobile manufacturer has improved on its rankings as the fifth largest carmaker in the United States, displacing its arch rival Japanese auto major Honda. The ranking was based on the year to date sales numbers of the auto producer in the American auto industry.
There is a genuine reason available with the Japan based automaker for this slide in their rankings, and that’s the natural devastation that took place on Japan’s east coast earlier this year in the month of March. As a reason, Honda Motors was forced to close their manufacturing plant and this adversely disturbed their performance in sales globally.
Another renowned Japanese automaker; Toyota Motors, also experienced such debacle in August 2011, when it lost the title of largest auto manufacturer in the world to American auto giant General Motors.
To achieve the fifth position and beat its rival in the year to date sales, Hyundai Motors just sold out 522 more units than Honda Motors. Overall, Hyundai sold 860,319 units in the current year and Honda made sales of 859,797 units. The battle was not fought on the even grounds if we look on the natural calamity prone Honda Motors. But the concern lies this year is that Hyundai Motors recorded a high of 27 percent in sales, while Honda Motors witnessed a six percent down in comparison to 2010 sales figures.
In India Hyundai Motors is the second largest passenger car manufacturer and retails Santro Xing, i10, i20, Accent, Verna and SUV Santa Fe, apart from the awaited small car Eon. While, Honda Motors sells City, Civic, Accord and compact SUV CR-V in the country.
